The news
Israeli forces are said to have opened fire on United Nations peacekeepers at three different positions in Lebanon in the past 24 hours, leaving two peacekeepers hospitalized with minor injuries, the UN said.
Israeli soldiers “deliberately” fired and disabled UN security cameras and shot into a UN base in southern Lebanon, “hitting the entrance to the bunker where peacekeepers were sheltering, and damaging vehicles and a communications system,” the UN mission claimed in a statement.
The U.N. peacekeeping mission said it was “following up” with Israel over the attacks, noting that “any deliberate attack on peacekeepers is a serious violation of international humanitarian law.” The Israeli military has not yet responded to the allegations.
Israel had previously asked peacekeepers to withdraw from bases close to the border with Lebanon – the UN mission has so far refused.
Relations between Israel and the UN have deteriorated sharply during the Gaza war, with the country’s ambassador to the alliance describing the UN as a “terrorist organization” earlier this year.
Know more
Israel took the unusual step earlier this month of banning the UN Secretary General from entering Israel, citing his inability to “unequivocally condemn Iran’s criminal attack on Israel.”
Israeli officials have alleged that Hamas used UN facilities in Gaza and accused staffers of the UN Palestinian Humanitarian Aid Agency of taking part in the October 7 attack.
Nearly 300 humanitarian workers, more than two-thirds of them UN staff, have been killed in Gaza, the UN said.
