During the week, the Israeli army had fired warning shots at UNIFIL vehicles, the UN adds.
Israeli soldiers hit UN peacekeeper vehicles with a Merkava tank on Sunday, causing “significant damage” to one of the vehicles, according to the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).
“The soldiers blocked a road in Bayada, used to access a UNIFIL position,” UNIFIL said in a statement. “In recent days, Israeli soldiers have been obstructing the peacekeepers’ movements on this road, adding to the restrictions on freedom of movement in other areas,” the UN force denounced.
Israeli soldiers had also fired warning shots in the region earlier in the week, hitting and damaging clearly marked UNIFIL vehicles, the statement also indicated. One shot landed a meter away from a peacekeeper who had exited his vehicle.
“Persistent attacks”
Countries with troops in UNIFIL and other states had condemned the “persistent attacks” on peacekeepers and called for an end to hostilities. Three Indonesian peacekeepers were killed in late March incidents, with preliminary UN investigations linking one death to an Israeli tank shell and two others to an improvised explosive device likely placed by Hezbollah.
Surveillance cameras at the UN peacekeepers’ headquarters in Naqoura and “five other positions” were also destroyed, UNIFIL recalled in its statement. Israeli soldiers painted over a pedestrian access door to the headquarters on Saturday, “obstructing all visibility of the outer perimeter,” the UN force mentioned.
Since 1978, when the first Israeli invasion occurred, UNIFIL has been present in southern Lebanon. The force patrols the south near the Israeli border, where Israel and Hezbollah have been in conflict since the pro-Iranian movement engaged Lebanon in regional warfare on March 2 with an attack on Israel in retaliation to Israeli-American strikes on Iran.
UNIFIL, comprising over 8,200 soldiers from 47 countries, is caught in the middle between Israel and the pro-Iranian movement. Its mandate expires at the end of the year.
