UN peacekeepers in Lebanon have warned of a “catastrophic” regional conflict after Israeli forces expanded their aerial bombardment in the country.
Israel faced a fierce diplomatic backlash . A fifth peacekeeper was shot Friday evening, but it was unclear whether he was from Israel or Hezbollah.
Forty nations contributing to UNIFIL, the United Nations peacekeeping force in Lebanon, said Saturday they “strongly condemn the recent attacks” against the peacekeepers.
“Such actions must stop immediately and should be properly investigated,” reads the joint statement, published on X by the Polish UN mission and signed by nations including major contributors Indonesia, Italy and India.
Other signatories include Ghana, Nepal, Malaysia, Spain, France and China, all countries that have contributed several hundred troops to the force.
The signatories “reaffirm our full support for the mission and activities of UNIFIL, whose main objective is to bring stabilization and lasting peace to southern Lebanon and the Middle East,” the statement read.
“We urge the parties to the conflict to respect the presence of UNIFIL, which implies the obligation to guarantee the safety and security of its personnel at all times,” he added.
What does UNIFIL do?
UNIFIL, involving about 9,500 soldiers of around 50 nationalities, is tasked with monitoring the ceasefire that ended a 33-day war in 2006 between Israel and Hezbollah.
Its role was strengthened by UN Security Council Resolution 1701 that year, which stipulated that only the Lebanese army and UN peacekeepers should be deployed in southern Lebanon.
UNIFIL said that, in recent days, its forces had “repeatedly” come under fire in the Lebanese town of Naqura, where it has its headquarters, as well as other locations.
The French, Italian and Spanish leaders said so at the summit on Friday has violated Resolution 1701 and must stop.
Andrea Tenenti, spokesperson for Unifil, told Agence France-Presse that the work of the peacekeeping mission has become “very difficult because there is a lot of damage, even inside the bases”.
But he added: “There was a unanimous decision to stay because it is important that the UN flag continues to fly high in this region and can report to the Security Council.”
Tenenti said he feared that an Israeli escalation against Hezbollah could soon turn into “a regional conflict with a catastrophic impact for everyone.”
There is “no military solution,” he said.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told his US counterpart Lloyd Austin that troops “will continue to take measures to avoid damage to UNIFIL troops and peacekeeping positions,” his ministry said on Sunday.
Israeli forces “intensify” attacks in southern Lebanon
Israeli warplanes struck a century-old mosque in a village near the border on Sunday, Lebanon’s official National News Agency (NNA) said.
A market in the southern city of Nabatiyeh was targeted on Saturday. There were also deadly attacks in a Shiite Muslim village in a Christian-majority mountainous area and another in northern Lebanon, the Health Ministry said.
The Health Ministry said Saturday’s attacks in three villages killed 15 people.
The Lebanese Red Cross said paramedics were slightly injured and ambulances destroyed in Sirbin when a house was hit by a second airstrike as they searched for victims.
Israel has said militants use civilian infrastructure in Lebanon and Gaza to conduct operations – a claim the groups have denied.
The Israeli army said its 36th division continued “focused and limited operational activity” against Hezbollah.
The planes hit “Hezbollah launchers, anti-tank missile sites, weapons depots and additional terrorist targets” and on the ground the soldiers “eliminated dozens of terrorists,” it said.
According to the NNA, Israeli forces have “intensified their attacks” in southern Lebanon, with “subsequent airstrikes from midnight until morning” hitting several border villages.
Hezbollah said it clashed with Israeli troops who attempted to “infiltrate” a border village twice, sparking an hour-long battle.
He later claimed to have shelled Israeli soldiers gathered in the village of Maroun al-Ras.
Hezbollah said that in the village of Blida its forces attacked Israeli soldiers “with machine guns at close range.” A volley of rockets was also said to have been fired at a “base in southern Haifa”.
Israel said it intercepted five projectiles after Hezbollah fired about 320 at Israel over the Yom Kippur weekend, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar.
In the same period, approximately 280 “terrorist targets” were attacked in Lebanon and Gaza.
A Hezbollah fighter was captured on Sunday as he emerged from a tunnel in southern Lebanon, the Israeli military said, the first such announcement since the ground offensive began.
Israel told residents of southern Lebanon on Saturday not to return home and issued new evacuation warnings for several villages.
“Everyone is at risk of dying”
In Gaza, Israeli forces concentrated on an area around Jabalia in the north, causing further suffering to hundreds of thousands of people trapped there, the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said.
Israeli military spokesman Avichay Adraee posted an evacuation warning on X on Saturday for an area near Jabalia, saying it is “considered a dangerous combat zone.”
“There is no safe place, neither in the south nor in the north: everyone is at risk of death,” Sami Asliya, 27, a Gaza resident, told Agence France-Presse.
Israel has been bombing Gaza since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack in which the Israeli government says more than 1,200 people were killed, including about 30 children, and more than 200 hostages were taken.
According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, more than 42,000 people have been killed in Gaza since October 7.
The October 7 attack represented a significant escalation in the long-standing conflict between Israel and Hamas.
Hezbollah began firing in northern Israel in October last year in support of Hamas, triggering an almost daily firefight that even before the current escalation had displaced tens of thousands of people.
Since Israel began a wave of airstrikes on targets around Lebanon in September and sent troops across the border, more than 1,200 people have been killed and a million others displaced, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry.
