BEIRUT (Reuters) – The United Nations’ peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon said on Friday that the Israeli military’s “deliberate and direct destruction” of its property was a “flagrant violation” of international law.
The 10,000-strong U.N. mission, known as UNIFIL, is stationed in southern Lebanon to monitor hostilities along the ‘blue line’ separating Lebanon from Israel.
Since Israel launched a ground campaign across the border against Hezbollah fighters at the end of September, UNIFIL has accused the Israeli military (IDF) on several occasions of deliberately attacking its bases, including by shooting at peacekeepers and destroying watchtowers.
In its latest accusation, it said the IDF used excavators and a bulldozer to destroy part of a fence and concrete structure at a U.N. peacekeeping position in southern Lebanon on Thursday. Peacekeepers had also observed Israeli troops this week removing a barrel that marks blue line, it said.
The IDF’s deliberate and direct destruction of clearly identifiable UNIFIL property is a flagrant violation of international law and resolution 1701,” UNIFIL said, referring to a U.N. resolution that mandates a cessation of hostilities in southern Lebanon after a previous war.
“Yesterday’s incident, like seven other similar incidents, is not a matter of peacekeepers getting caught in the crossfire, but of deliberate and direct actions by the IDF,” UNIFIL said.
It said the U.N. force would remain in Lebanon “despite the unacceptable pressures being exerted on the mission”.
The statement came a day after six Malaysian peacekeepers on a U.N. bus crossing through a checkpoint were wounded by an Israeli drone strike that killed three Lebanese people in a nearby car.
Israel says U.N. troops provide a human shield for Hezbollah fighters and has told UNIFIL to evacuate from southern Lebanon for their own safety – a request that the force has rejected.
(Reporting by Maya Gebeily; Editing by Alex Richardson, Peter Graff)
