Peacekeepers will not move, UN says, despite warnings from Israel
The UN Security Council has strongly condemned attacks on peacekeepers
United Nations peacekeepers will remain in all their positions in Lebanon, despite several being injured in Israeli attacks over the last week.
Israel has urged peacekeepers to move five kilometres (three miles) north during its ground invasion in Lebanon, but on Monday UN Secretary General António Guterres confirmed they would not be going anywhere, according to peacekeeping chief Jean-Pierre Lacroix.
At least five peacekeepers have been injured as Israeli forces inflicted damage on UN positions.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called for United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) to heed Israel’s warnings to evacuate, accusing them of “providing a human shield” to Hezbollah.
“We regret the injury to the UNIFIL soldiers, and we are doing everything in our power to prevent this injury. But the simple and obvious way to ensure this is simply to get them out of the danger zone,” he said on Sunday in a video addressed to Mr Guterres, who has been banned from entering Israel.
Attacks against peacekeepers "are in breach of international law, including international humanitarian law," a United Nations spokesperson said on Monday.
"They may constitute a war crime," he added, on behalf of Mr Guterres. "[Mr Guterres] called on all parties, including the IDF (Israeli Defense Forces), to refrain from any and all actions that put our peacekeepers at risk."
The UN Security Council expressed “strong concern” on Monday after Israel wounded UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon during intensified fighting.
The comments were the first made by the UN’s most powerful body since Israel's attacks on the positions of the peacekeeping force UNIFIL began last week, drawing international condemnation.
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The UK government has condemned reports of Israel deliberately firing at peacekeepers.
Meanwhile at least 21 people in the northern Lebanese village of Aito have been killed as a result of an Israeli airstrike, the Lebanese Red Cross has reported.
The strike hit a small residential building in the village of Aito, which is part of the country's Christian heartland in the north - far from the Hezbollah militant group's main areas of influence in the south and east.
The Israeli Defense Forces said “the claim that Lebanese civilians were killed as a result of the strike is under review”, adding it hit what it claimed was a Hezbollah target in the area.
Rescue efforts and debris removal are ongoing.
Israel has been escalating its campaign against Hezbollah in Lebanon across a UN-drawn boundary between the two countries.
The sides have been clashing since the Iranian-backed militant group started firing rockets a year ago in solidarity with its ally Hamas in Gaza. Hamas' deadly attacks in southern Israel on October 7, 2023, launched the latest conflict.
The Security Council statement, issued after emergency closed consultations on Lebanon, did not name Israel, Lebanon or Hezbollah.
Read by Swiss UN Ambassador Pascale Baeriswyl, the council's current president, it urges all parties “to respect the safety and security of UNIFIL personnel and UN premises”.
The 15-member Security Council has been deeply divided over the war in Gaza, with the United States defending its ally Israel as support for the Palestinians has grown among members and casualties have escalated.
The Biden administration has become more critical of civilian deaths as well as the recent attacks on UNIFIL.
US Deputy Ambassador Robert Wood told reporters that “it’s good that the council can speak with one voice on what’s on the minds of all people around the world right now - and it’s the situation in Lebanon.”The council's statement sends a message to the Lebanese people “that the council cares, that the council is watching this issue and that the council today spoke with one voice,” Mr Wood said.
Council members also expressed “deep concern” at civilian casualties and suffering, the destruction of civilian infrastructure and the rising number of internally displaced people.
More than 1,400 people in Lebanon, including civilians, medics and Hezbollah fighters, have been killed and 1.2 million displaced in the past month.
That includes a total of 400,000 children just in the last three weeks, according to UNICEF.
Around 60 Israelis have been killed in Hezbollah strikes in the past year. Israel says it wants to drive the militant group away from the border so some 60,000 displaced Israelis can return to their homes.The Security Council statement called on all parties to abide by international humanitarian law, which requires the protection of civilians.
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