United Nations, Oct 11
A UN peacekeeping base in Lebanon came under fire from Israeli forces but Indian peacekeepers there are reported safe.
However, two Indonesian peacekeepers at the base, the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) headquarters in Naqoura, were injured on Thursday when an Israeli tank fired at an observation tower directly hitting it, Farhan Haq, the spokesperson for Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said.
“The injuries are fortunately -- this time -- not serious, but the peacekeepers remain in the hospital,” he said.
Israel is on an increasingly intense ground offensive against Hezbollah and the UNIFIL peacekeepers stationed on the Lebanese side along the so-called Blue Line that divides Israel from Lebanon and Syria are caught in the middle of the conflict.
Israel asked the UNIFIL to vacate some of its bases, but the peacekeepers have so far remained in positions as mandated by the Security Council.
Hezbollah, a militia aligned with Iran, controls wide swathes of Southern Lebanon, where Beirut’s writ does not run and confronts Israel from there in violation of a Security Council resolution.
India has contributed about 900 peacekeepers to the operation and they are spread across several UNIFIL positions, with Naqoura being one of them.
Haq said that Israeli forces also fired at two other positions in the area.
He said that Israeli troops fired at the entrance to the bunker where peacekeepers were sheltering at Labbouneh, and vehicles and a communications system were damaged.