BEIRUT: The Israeli army on Saturday threatened to target ambulances in southern Lebanon, claiming they are being used by Hezbollah to “transport fighters and weapons”.

The warning came on a day when a fifth staffer of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) was wounded in yet another strike, after Israel admitted that its forces fired at a ‘threat’ near a UN peacekeeping position and that a “hit” was responsible for wounding two Blue Helmets.

The incidents of shooting at UN peacekeepers in past few days have sparked a fierce diplomatic backlash.

The Israeli military on Saturday threatened the people of Lebanon not to return to their homes. “For your own protection, do not return to your homes until further notice. Do not go south; anyone who goes south may put his life at risk,” the military warned.

People of south Lebanon warned not to return to their homes; UNIFIL refuses to leave positions

The UNIFIL said that gunfire hit a peacekeeper, the fifth wounded in south Lebanon, near its headquarters in Naqura.

After the latest warning by the Israeli forces, Andrea Tenenti, spokesperson for the UNIFIL, said UN peacekeepers in south Lebanon would not move from the border area despite five of their members being wounded and damage to facilities.

He said an Israeli escalation against Hezbollah in past weeks risked turning into “a regional conflict with catastrophic impact for everyone”, and that the only solution was “diplomatic”.

The Israeli army earlier announced very “limited” incursions into Lebanon.

Tenenti said Israel had asked UNIFIL to withdraw from positions “up to five kilometres (three miles) from the Blue Line” separating both countries, but the peacekeepers refused. “There was a unanimous decision to stay because it’s important for the UN flag to still fly high in this region, and to be able to report to the UNSC,” he said.

Michael Higgins, the president of Ireland which has troops in the mission, had earlier said Israel was “demanding that the entire UNIFIL operating under UN mandates walk away,” which he called “outrageous”.

UNIFIL is tasked with monitoring a ceasefire that ended a 33-day war in 2006. Its role was bolstered by UNSC Resolution 1701, which stipulated that only the Lebanese army and UN peacekeepers should be deployed in south Lebanon. At a summit on Friday, southern European leaders said the “attacks” on UNIFIL violated Resolution 1701 and must end.

Israel had not asked UNIFIL to evacuate its headquarters in the town of Naqura, further north. But in recent days, the mission said, its forces have “repeatedly” come under fire in Naqura as well as in other positions.

Since Sept 23, Israel has killed more than 1,200 people in Lebanon, and displaced more than a million from their homes, according to Lebanese authorities.

Israel’s crimes denounced

Meanwhile, Iran’s parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf visited the site of the deadliest Israeli strike on central Beirut in recent weeks, an AFP photographer said.

A source close to Hezbollah said that the air raid in the densely populated Basta area, which killed at least 22 people, had targeted the Iran-backed Leba­nese group’s security chief Wafiq Safa.

Speaking to the press, accompanied by two Hezbollah lawmakers, Ghalibaf denounced what he called Israel’s “crimes”. “International organisations and the UN Security Council have the capability (to stop Israel) but they are unfortunately keeping silent,” he said.

Earlier, Ghalibaf met Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati, who told him his government’s priority was “to work towards a ceasefire”.

Published in Dawn, October 13th, 2024