US President Joe Biden has said he is “absolutely, positively” urging Israel to stop firing at UN peacekeepers during its conflict with Hezbollah in Lebanon, following two incidents in 48 hours.
On Friday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said its troops were responsible for the incident, in which two Sri Lankan soldiers for the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil) were injured.
IDF soldiers operating around the Unifil base in Naqoura identified a threat and opened fire, the Israeli army said, adding the incident would be investigated “at the highest levels”.
On Thursday, two Indonesian Unifil soldiers were injured falling from an observation tower after an Israeli tank fired towards it.
Leaders from France, Italy, and Spain have issued a joint statement denouncing Israel’s actions, labeling them as unjustifiable and calling for an immediate cessation. Sri Lanka’s foreign ministry expressed its strong condemnation of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) attack that injured two of its soldiers.
Jean-Pierre Lacroix, head of UN peacekeeping, noted that there is evidence suggesting some fire directed at UN positions in southern Lebanon was intentional, although he refrained from assigning blame for the incidents. He cited specific cases where a tower was struck and cameras at a UN position were damaged, which appeared to be direct fire.
As Israel’s military operations in southern Lebanon persist, both the IDF and Hezbollah have been engaged in ongoing missile exchanges across the Israel-Lebanon border. The IDF reported detecting approximately 100 rockets crossing into northern Israel from Lebanon within just half an hour on Friday, along with two unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), one of which was intercepted.
The Lebanese health ministry confirmed that three individuals, including a two-year-old girl, lost their lives in an Israeli raid on Sidon, while two Lebanese soldiers were killed when Israeli forces targeted an army post in Kafra. In Beirut, emergency workers continued to sift through the rubble of buildings struck by two Israeli airstrikes on Thursday.
Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati condemned the attacks as unprovoked, reporting 22 civilian casualties and 117 injuries. Israel has yet to comment on these developments.
Last month, Israeli forces initiated a ground invasion into southern Lebanon in response to ongoing rocket fire from Hezbollah. Since October, following a deadly assault by Hamas in southern Israel, Hezbollah and Israel have been engaged in near-daily cross-border exchanges of fire.
The IDF clarified that the UN post hit in Naqoura was located approximately 164 feet (50 meters) from the identified threat. They asserted that peacekeeping troops were advised to remain in secure areas at that time. Unifil reported that Israeli military vehicles had displaced barriers at another UN site in Labbouneh, closer to the Israeli border, which they deemed a “serious development.”
Prime Minister Mikati characterized Friday’s assault as “a crime directed at the international community.”
