Israel attacks UN peacekeepers in Lebanon: Why it’s such a big deal
UNIFIL armoured personnel carriers depart from a base to patrol the Lebanon-Israel border on 5 October 2024 in Marjayoun, Lebanon
Sarah Shamim writes in Al Jazeera on 11 Oct 2024:
The Israeli military has fired on the United Nations peacekeeping force in Lebanon twice in less than 48 hours, the UN says.
Israeli forces repeatedly fired at a guard tower at the headquarters of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) on Thursday, injuring two members of the force, and again fired at a watchtower, injuring two more peacekeepers, on Friday. It is almost unheard of for a UN member state to take aim at a UN peacekeeping force, so how significant are these incidents in the unfolding war in Lebanon?
What happened?
On Thursday morning, Israeli forces used a Merkava tank to fire at an observation tower belonging to UNIFIL in Naqoura, a small border-area town in southern Lebanon where UNIFIL has been headquartered since 1978.
Two Indonesian peacekeepers were directly hit, causing them to fall. “The injuries are fortunately, this time, not serious, but they remain in hospital,” a UN statement issued on Thursday read. The statement added that on Wednesday, Israeli soldiers had “deliberately fired at and disabled” the monitoring cameras at UNIFIL’s headquarters.
On Friday, UNIFIL released a second statement saying two more peacekeepers had been injured when two explosions occurred close to an observation tower. One was taken for treatment at a hospital in the Lebanese city of Tyre while the other was being treated in Naqoura.
Israel’s attacks were condemned by members of the international community, including Indonesia, Italy, France, Spain, Ireland, Turkey, the European Union and Canada.
What is UNIFIL?
UNIFIL is a peacekeeping force in Lebanon originally set up by the UN Security Council in March 1978 after Israel first invaded Lebanon in what became known as the South Lebanon Conflict. In 1978, Israel deployed its troops along the border with Lebanon after Palestine Liberation Organization members entered Israel from Lebanon by sea.UNIFIL was established to oversee the Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon and to restore peace and security in the area.
After a 34-day war in Lebanon between Hezbollah and Israel in 2006, in which 1,100 Lebanese people were killed, UNIFIL’s mandate was expanded to monitor the cessation of hostilities and support Lebanese armed forces deployed throughout southern Lebanon.
As of September 2, 10,058 UNIFIL soldiers are deployed in Lebanon. They come from 50 countries. The largest number of UNIFIL peacekeepers – 1,231 – come from Indonesia. Italy, India, Nepal and China also contribute a large number of soldiers to the peacekeeping force.