Two UN peacekeepers have been injured after an Israeli tank fired towards a watchtower at a UN base in southern Lebanon, the UN says. According to a statement by the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), the observation tower at its headquarters in Naqoura was directly hit, causing the peacekeepers to fall. “The injuries are fortunately, this time, not serious, but they remain in hospital,” the UN says. It adds that Israeli soldiers also fired at a UN base in Ras Naqoura, “hitting the entrance to the bunker where peacekeepers were sheltering, and damaging vehicles and a communications system”. There’s more in their statement which we’ll bring you shortly. UNIFIL is a UN peacekeeping mission created in 1978. It monitors hostilities and helps to ensure humanitarian access to civilians.

  • MyEdgyAlt@sh.itjust.worksOP
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    8 hours ago

    A newer live update from BBC reports:

    In 2006, during the last major confrontation, a UN Observation Position (OP) came under Israeli artillery and aerial bombardment. Despite repeated appeals to the IDF to stop firing, throughout 25 July, the OP on the outskirts of the village of Khiam was finally destroyed. Four UN military observers from Austria, Canada, China and Finland were killed. Israel’s ambassador to the US, Danny Ayalon, said “Unifil obviously got caught in the middle", and suggested that the deadly fire could have come from Hezbollah. A UN investigation concluded that the base had been destroyed by a 500kg precision-guided bomb dropped by an Israeli warplane.

    Israel has been doing this for ages.