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Journalism of Courage
India on Friday (October 11) said it was “concerned” at the “deteriorating” security situation in parts of West Asia after two members of a United Nations peacekeeping mission operating along Lebanon’s border with Israel were injured. The incident took place on Thursday after an Israeli tank fired on one of the group’s observation towers, according to UN officials.
It was the most serious incident involving the international force since Israel warned it to relocate from Lebanese positions near where it said Hezbollah fighters had launched rockets into northern Israel. The UN forces rejected the request to move, a spokesperson said.
The UN has kept the peacekeeping force, known as UNIFIL, in southern Lebanon since 1978. Its mission is largely observational, though its mandate was expanded in 2006 at the end of the last war between Israel and Hezbollah.
The United Nations Interim Peacekeeping Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) is an international body of more than 10,000 civilian and military personnel from 50 countries assigned to prevent violations along the border between Lebanon and Israel. That 121-km stretch is often called the Blue Line.
A UN resolution from 2006 includes language authorising the force to “ensure that its area of operations is not utilised for hostile activities of any kind.”
The group is charged by the UN with keeping out of the area any weapons or fighters. But over the past decade, the United States and Israel have argued that the peacekeepers have been largely ineffective at preventing Hezbollah from stockpiling and firing rockets from the territory they patrol.
UNIFIL is supposed to prevent violations in the border zone and report breaches to the UN Security Council. Although they are armed, the peacekeepers are generally restricted to using force only when their safety or the safety of civilians is in immediate danger.
During its invasion into southern Lebanon last week, the Israeli military established new positions near one of the UNIFIL bases, according to UN officials.
A UN spokesperson said the Israeli military had been firing at Hezbollah positions from those locations, putting the peacekeepers increasingly at risk. He said the Israeli military had asked the UN forces to relocate, but that they had declined to do so.
Although attacks on UN personnel violate international law, Hezbollah has for a year launched rockets into northern Israel from close to UN positions in southern Lebanon. That complicates the rules of engagement.
On Thursday, UNIFIL said that Israeli tank fire hit an observation tower at the force’s headquarters in Naqoura, Lebanon, and that soldiers had also struck the entrance of a bunker at a nearby base where peacekeepers were sheltering.
