BEIRUT (Reuters) -The United Nations’ peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon said on Friday that the Israeli military’s “deliberate and direct destruction” of its property was a “flagrant violation” of international law.
The 10,000-strong U.N. mission, known as UNIFIL, is stationed in southern Lebanon to monitor hostilities along the “blue line” separating Lebanon from Israel.
Since Israel launched a ground campaign across the border against Hezbollah fighters at the end of September, UNIFIL has accused the Israeli military (IDF) on several occasions of deliberately attacking its bases, including by shooting at peacekeepers and destroying watchtowers.
Israel has denied such incidents are deliberate attacks. Israel says U.N. troops provide a human shield for Hezbollah fighters and has told UNIFIL to evacuate from southern Lebanon for their own safety – a request that the force has rejected.
In its latest accusation, UNIFIL said the IDF used excavators and a bulldozer to destroy part of a fence and concrete structure at a U.N. peacekeeping position in southern Lebanon on Thursday. Peacekeepers had also observed Israeli troops this week removing a barrel that marks blue line, it said.
“The IDF’s deliberate and direct destruction of clearly identifiable UNIFIL property is a flagrant violation of international law and resolution 1701,” UNIFIL said, referring to a U.N. resolution that mandates a cessation of hostilities in southern Lebanon after a previous war.
“Yesterday’s incident, like seven other similar incidents, is not a matter of peacekeepers getting caught in the crossfire, but of deliberate and direct actions by the IDF,” UNIFIL said.
It said the U.N. force would remain in Lebanon “despite the unacceptable pressures being exerted on the mission”.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.
The statement came a day after six Malaysian peacekeepers on a U.N. bus that was crossing through a checkpoint were wounded by an Israeli drone strike that killed three Lebanese people in a nearby car.
Separately, the Israeli military said it had located a Hezbollah training centre about 200 metres from a UNIFIL base in southern Lebanon, equipped with study materials and large quantities of weapons.
It said the facility, which it destroyed, contained launchers prepared for firing at Israeli communities.
A UNIFIL spokesperson said the Israeli military had not shared any information about an alleged Hezbollah installation.
Israel has accused UNIFIL forces of turning a blind eye as Hezbollah built up a network of tunnels and other infrastructure close to the border with northern Israel for more than a decade, often within sight of their bases.
It says the infrastructure was part of a Hezbollah plan to carry out an attack on Israel along the lines of the Oct. 7, 2023 attack on communities in southern Israel by Palestinian militant group Hamas.
The UNIFIL spokesperson said UNIFIL has regularly reported suspicious locations to the Security Council. The U.N. Security Council has not asked UNIFIL to disarm any non-state armed groups including Hezbollah, the spokesperson said.
(Reporting by Maya Gebeily; Additional reporting James Mackenzie in Jerusalem; Editing by Alex Richardson, Peter Graff and Frances Kerry)
