'It's deliberate': UNIFIL condemns Israeli attacks on peacekeepers in Lebanon

UNIFIL spokesperson Andrea Tenenti told ITV News' John Ray there is "nothing more serious" than peacekeepers being put at risk of death

Israel is at war with Hezbollah – and at the same time, set on a dangerous collision course with the United Nations.

Among the villages and hills of southern Lebanon, caught now between Hezbollah and Israeli soldiers, there are some 10,000 troops of UNIFIL, the UN peacekeeping force.

Their job is to monitor a cease-fire that broke down long ago.

Now the Israelis want them gone. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says they serve as human shields for Hezbollah. The Israeli military released a video it said showed Hezbollah tunnels close to a UNIFIL base.

There have been a series of assaults on or near UN bases by the Israel Defence Forces (IDF).

"It’s deliberate," UNIFIL spokesman, Andrea Tenenti, told us on Monday.

"It’s a serious violation of international humanitarian law."

He rejected the Israeli claim that UNIFIL forces are in effect cover for Hezbollah.

"We are in a dangerous situation. We are in between the fire," he told us.

"If you attack peacekeepers and you injure peacekeepers – and they could have been killed – there is nothing more serious than that."

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UNIFIL's forces are among the few independent witnesses to the war in the south of Lebanon – though their movements are now severely limited.

An estimated 150,000 civilians remain in the area north of the "blue line" border with Israel.

The UN says its troops are the world’s eye and ears. It believes it has a duty to them to stay.

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