Security Council voices ‘strong concern’ over Israel attacks on UN peacekeepers

The UN Security Council has expressed “strong concern” after Israel fired on and wounded UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon during intensified fighting, reiterating its support for their role in supporting security in the region.

It is the first statement by the UN’s most powerful body since Israel’s attacks on the positions of the peacekeeping force known as Unifil began last week, drawing international condemnation.

UN peacekeeping chief Jean-Marie Lacroix told reporters that Secretary-General Antonio Guterres confirmed on Monday that peacekeepers will remain in all their positions even as Israel has urged the peacekeepers to move three miles north during its ground invasion in Lebanon.

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’s deadly attacks in southern Israel on October 7 2023, launched the war.

The Security Council statement, issued on Monday after emergency closed consultations on Lebanon, did not name either 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 “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”.

He said 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”.

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. About 60 Israelis have been killed in Hezbollah strikes in the past year.

Over the past year, 2,350 people in Lebanon have been killed in Israeli airstrikes, according to the country’s health ministry, which says roughly 25% have been women and children.

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.

Council members also called for the full implementation of Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war “and recognised the need for further practical measures to achieve that outcome”.

That resolution calls for the Lebanese army to deploy throughout the south and for all armed groups, including Hezbollah, to be disarmed — neither of which has happened in the past 18 years.

Mr Lacroix, the undersecretary-general for peace operations, told reporters after his closed briefing to the Security Council that five Unifil peacekeepers have been injured in recent days and that the UN has protested to Israel.

Israel has indicated “investigations will be carried out regarding some of these incidents… and we will see what comes out of this,” he said.

Israeli Army spokesman Lt Col Nadav Shoshani asserted on Sunday that Israel has tried to maintain constant contact with Unifil and that any instance of UN forces being harmed will be investigated at “the highest level”.

Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called for 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 the UN secretary-general, who has been banned from entering Israel.

Mr Lacroix on Monday stressed that all parties have a responsibility to ensure the safety and security of the peacekeepers.

He also said it is important that the peacekeepers stay in their positions “because we all hope there will be a return to the negotiation table, and that there will be finally a real effort to full implementation of resolution 1701”.

Later on Tuesday the UN human rights office called for an independent probe into an Israeli airstrike that hit an apartment block in northern Lebanon and left at least 22 people dead.

Jeremy Laurence, spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), said the agency has received reports that 12 women and two children were among those killed Monday in the airstrike on the village of Aito.

“With these factors in mind, we have real concerns with respect to … the laws of war and principles of distinction, proportion and proportionality,” he told reporters in Geneva on Tuesday.

Mr Laurence is calling for a “prompt, independent and thorough investigation into this incident”.

Hezbollah’s acting leader declared on Tuesday that the Lebanese militant group is focused on “hurting the enemy” by targeting Haifa and other parts of Israel, including Tel Aviv.

Sheikh Naim Kassem, Hezbollah’s deputy chief, vowed in a televised speech to “defeat our enemies and drive them out of our lands”.

It was his third appearance since Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was killed in an Israeli airstrike in a southern suburb of Beirut.

Later on Tuesday, several villages in southern Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley were witnessing intensified airstrikes.

According to the state-run National News Agency, an Israeli airstrike on Qana in Tyre province on Tuesday killed at least one person and wounded 30, with many believed to be trapped under the rubble.

In the same province, incessant airstrikes targeted villages including Al-Qasimiyah, Ain Baal, Aita al-Jabal, Majdalzon, and Al-Mansouri, according to the agency.

The Lebanese health ministry says an Israeli strike on Riyak in the Bekaa Valley killed five people, including three children, and wounded 16.