He urged Security Council In a statement, “All parties agree to respect the safety and security of peacekeeping forces”UNIFIL) and its headquarters.
The statement called on all parties to… Lebanon to adhere to international humanitarian law,” and expressed the Council’s grave concern “about civilian casualties and the destruction of civilian infrastructure.”
The statement stressed the call for “full implementation.” For Resolution 1701Recognizing “the need for further practical measures to achieve this result.”
The statement pointed to “the need for diplomatic efforts that would lead to a permanent end to the conflict.”
In a related context, the United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Peace Operations, Jean-Pierre Lacroix, confirmed on Monday that peacekeepers “will remain in all their positions” in Lebanon despite the injury of five of them and the calls for evacuation directed at them. Israel Because of the ongoing fighting between its forces And Hezbollah.
He was the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu On Monday, he again called on UNIFIL to evacuate some sites near his country’s borders, stressing that accusing Israeli forces of intentionally targeting UNIFIL is “completely false.”
Israel has been severely criticized for injuries and damage to UNIFIL deployed in Lebanon since the first Israeli ground attack on this country in 1978.
Lacroix said, “The decision was taken that (the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon) UNIFIL will remain present in all its locations, despite calls issued by Israeli army To evacuate sites near Blue line“The separation between Lebanon and Israel.
On Sunday, UNIFIL said that after Israeli forces crossed the border in the town of Ramiya, “two Merkava tanks belonging to the Israeli army destroyed the main gate of the site and entered it by force,” then left “after about 45 minutes.”
Later, the Israeli army said that a tank “retreated several meters into a UNIFIL position” while it was “under fire” and trying to evacuate wounded soldiers.
Resolution 1701, which put an end to a devastating war that took place in 2006 between Hezbollah and Israel, strengthened the presence of UNIFIL and assigned it to monitor the ceasefire between the two sides.
Under this decision, it spread Lebanese Army For the first time in decades, on the border with Israel, with the aim of preventing any “illegal” military presence on it.
The UNIFIL force, which includes 9,500 soldiers from about fifty countries, refused on Saturday to withdraw five kilometers north into Lebanese territory, as demanded by the Israeli army.
