UNIFIL blames 20 incidents on the Israeli army, which it says included seven that were ‘deliberate’ attacks.
The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, UNIFIL, recorded over 30 incidents in October that caused property damage or injured its soldiers amid Israel’s repeated calls on the peacekeepers to abandon their positions.
Of the 30 incidents this month, “about 20 of those we could attribute to [Israeli military] fire or actions, with seven being deliberate”, UNIFIL’s spokesman Andrea Tenenti told a news conference on Wednesday.
The origin of the fire could not be determined for about a dozen other incidents.
Immensely worrying events, however, are those in which peacekeepers carrying out their monitoring duties, and even our cameras, lights, and watchtowers as a whole, have been the targets of deliberate actions by [the Israeli military],” Tenenti said.
“To be clear, both sides here, the [Israeli military] and Hezbollah, are jeopardizing peacekeepers,” he further told the press.
Eight Austrian soldiers also sustained superficial injuries from the incident, according to the Austrian Ministry of Defence on Tuesday.
We condemn this attack in the strongest possible terms and demand that it be investigated immediately,” the ministry said in a statement, adding it wasn’t yet clear where the attack came from. None of the soldiers needed urgent medical care.
Israeli forces fired at one of its positions in Kfar Kila in a “direct and deliberate” attack that damaged a watchtower, UN peacekeepers said on 16 October.
