UN peacekeepers in Lebanon accuse Israel of deliberately firing on their bases

Beirut: Fresh allegations of breaking international law were made on Thursday by the UN peacekeeping operation in Lebanon, which alleged that Israeli soldiers had opened fire on its positions deliberately, injuring two peacekeepers.

In its ongoing fight with Hezbollah, which started in Gaza a year ago, Israel has carried out repeated ground incursions across the border into Lebanon on the ground.

UN member states who provide troops to the UN-backed interim force in Lebanon (Unifil) expressed their concern over the alleged strikes at a time when Israel is already being investigated on several fronts for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.

According to a UN assessment released on Thursday, Israel is accused of waging a coordinated campaign to destroy Gaza's healthcare system during the conflict in the Gaza Strip, calling the annihilation a crime against humanity and war crimes. A group of specialists commissioned by the UN and headed by Navi Pillay, a former UN high commissioner for human rights, authored the report, the Guardian reported.

Before the complete report was presented to the UN General Assembly on October 30, Pillay released a statement summarising its findings. She claimed that Israel had carried out “relentless and deliberate attacks on medical personnel and facilities” throughout the war, which was started by a Hamas attack on southern Israel on October 7, last year.

“Children in particular have borne the brunt of these attacks, suffering both directly and indirectly from the collapse of the health system,” Pillay said.

Israel, which has continuously charged the UN with institutional bias against it, did not immediately respond. The International Criminal Court is considering requests for arrest warrants for war crimes against Benjamin Netanyahu, his defence minister Yoav Gallant, and Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.

The International Court of Justice is evaluating claims led by South Africa that Israel has committed genocide in Gaza. According to al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital, where the bodies were taken, 27 people were killed on Thursday in an Israeli strike on a school in the central Gaza city of Deir al-Balah that was housing displaced people. Among them were seven women and a child.

According to the Israeli military, it executed a targeted precision strike inside the school, taking aim at a militant command and control centre. Since the start of the conflict, Israeli forces are thought to have murdered around 42,000 Palestinians in Gaza, the majority of them were civilians.

Late on Thursday, Israeli airstrikes on the Basta suburb in central Beirut, a working-class neighbourhood that has welcomed many displaced people, resulted in 22 deaths and at least 117 injuries.

According to Unifil, two Indonesian peacekeepers fell off an observation tower at the force's headquarters in Naqoura, close north of the Lebanese border, after an Israeli tank opened fire on it.

Unifil's statement said, “The injuries are fortunately, this time, not serious, but they remain in hospital,” adding that deliberate attacks on UN peacekeepers was a “grave violation” of international law.

A few hundred meters from the border, at Labbouneh, a UN observation post was also targeted by Israel Defence Forces (IDF) soldiers, according to Unifil. The shots "hit the entrance to the bunker where peacekeepers were sheltering, and damaging vehicles and a communications system."

The peacekeepers believed that the attacks on their positions were not accidental; the Unifil statement implied that they had been premeditated.

“An IDF drone was observed flying inside the UN position up to the bunker entrance,” it said. “Yesterday, IDF soldiers deliberately fired at and disabled the position’s perimeter-monitoring cameras.”

Additionally, according to Unifil, Israeli forces "deliberately fired" on a UN building at a coastal border point where peacekeepers had trilateral talks with Lebanese and Israeli officials before the start of the current conflict.

Any intentional assault on peacekeepers, according to Unifil, constitutes a "grave violation of international humanitarian law" and Security Council Resolution 1701. Attacks on peacekeepers "can never be tolerated or acceptable," according to Taoiseach Simon Harris, while the Irish government, which has a force of troops in Unifil, said that none of its peacekeepers had been injured.

Additionally, France, Italy, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Ghana have contributed soldiers to the ranks of Unifil.

Guido Crosetto, Italy's minister of defence, declared that fire on Unifil bases was "totally unacceptable" and blatantly against international law. The strike was denounced by the French foreign ministry, which also stated that it was waiting on an explanation from Israel.

The IDF claimed that its troops had opened fire close to the Unifil base after UN personnel in the region were told to stay in secured areas on Thursday morning. “Hezbollah operates from within and near civilian areas in southern Lebanon, including areas near Unifil posts,” it said in a brief statement.

The attacks on the Unifil positions occurred two days after the IDF stationed more than two dozen tanks and other armoured vehicles surrounding the position last Saturday, resulting in a stalemate between Israeli forces and thirty Irish soldiers at a UN observation post on the border.

The Israeli forces finally withdrew on Tuesday but not before the Irish foreign minister and Taoiseach made a series of frantic appeals to Joe Biden and UN officials. The incidents of UN positions being fired on Thursday, according to Irish Foreign Minister Micheál Martin, were "unacceptable.”

“Peacekeeping is the noblest thing anyone can do,” Martin added. “UN peacekeeping soldiers are there to keep the peace at the invitation of both sides to this conflict, and Israel has an obligation to make sure that no UN peacekeeper gets into harm’s way.”

The right-wing coalition led by Netanyahu has been more hostile towards the UN, especially towards Unrwa, the organization's aid agency for Palestinian refugees, which Israel claims has been infiltrated by Hamas.

Nine Unrwa workers may have been involved in the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,200 Israelis—mostly civilians—and the abduction of 250 more, according to an August UN internal investigation assessment.

This week, two bills that would ban Unrwa from conducting business on Israeli territory have been approved by a committee of the Israeli Knesset. The agency's head, Philippe Lazzarini, informed the UN that if bills are adopted by the entire Knesset, it would violate Israel's commitments under the UN charter and international law and that this might cause Unrwa to fall apart.

According to Danny Danon, the Israeli ambassador to the UN, Unrwa's infiltration was "so ingrained, so institutional, that the organisation is simply beyond repair.”