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UN chief slams Israel after new attack on UNIFIL
The UN chief has condemned the Israeli shooting targeting the the UN peacekeepers in Lebanon, adding that they must be protected. The UN chief stressed that the world cannot allow escalation of the conflict in the Middle East, calling it a threat to global security.
Italy, China condemn Israeli attacks on UNIFIL post
Israeli forces have acted illegally by shooting at positions used by UN peacekeepers in Lebanon, according to Italian Defence Minister Guido Crosetto, who denounced it as a possible “war crime”.
“This was not a mistake and not an accident,” Crosetto told a news conference. “It could constitute a war crime and represented a very serious violation of international humanitarian law,” he said.
Crosetto said he had contacted his Israeli counterpart to protest and had also summoned the Israeli ambassador to Italy to demand an explanation, which was not yet forthcoming.
Meanwhile, China expressed “grave concern and strong condemnation” of the incidents.
“China expresses grave concern and strong condemnation over the Israeli Defense Forces’ attack on UNIFIL positions and observation posts, which resulted in injuries to UNIFIL personnel,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said, referring to the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon.
Lebanon’s PM calls for ‘immediate’ ceasefire
Lebanon’s caretaker PM Mikati has called for a UN resolution demanding an “immediate” ceasefire with Israel. He urged Israel to stop its attacks on the civilian population and residential areas, saying that 139 people were killed in strikes yesterday.
“All of them were civilians. This is no longer acceptable. Where is the humanity? What reality are we living in?”
Mikati also said the Israeli attack on the UN peacekeeping forces in southern Lebanon is a “denounced crime”.
PM Mikati reiterating 19-year ceasefire call
What PM Mikati is doing is reiterating a ceasefire deal that has been on the table for 19 years.
That is UN Resolution 1701 passed in 2006 by the Security Council. It calls on Hezbollah to push back from the Latani River for the Lebanese army to take over security in that part of southern Lebanon.
Mikati is also saying Israel’s actions in Lebanon should be a wake-up call for the international community. He said this is more crucial than ever – the framework and the ceasefire deal are there and it just needs to be implemented.
And his government is ready to implement it to the letter.
UN ‘appalled’ by Israel-Hezbollah war rhetoric
The United Nations says it is “appalled” by inflammatory language surrounding the war between Israel and Hezbollah and asked leaders to end their “bellicose posturing”.
Netanyahu this week urged the Lebanese people to rise up against Hezbollah or risk a similar fate to Hamas-run Gaza.
“We are appalled by sweeping inflammatory language on multiple sides,” UN Human Rights Office spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani told a media briefing in Geneva.
“Recent language threatening Lebanese people as a whole and calling on them to either rise up against Hezbollah or face destruction like Gaza, risks being understood as encouraging or accepting violence directed against civilians and civilian objects, in violation of international law.”
She also decried as “unacceptable” the “ongoing denigration of the UN, in particular UNRWA”, the UN agency supporting nearly six million Palestinian refugees spread across Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.
“This kind of toxic rhetoric, from any source, must stop,” she said.
