The Israeli Defence Forces denied reports that its tanks had stormed a post of the United Nations Interim Force In Lebanon early Sunday morning.
The United Nations said on Sunday Israeli tanks had burst through the gates of a base of its peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon. Two Israeli Merkava tanks destroyed the main gate of a base and forcibly entered before dawn on Sunday morning. After the tanks left, shells exploded 100 metres (yards) away, releasing smoke which blew across the base and sickened U.N. personnel, it said in a statement.
Warning By Netanyahu
This follows repeated warnings by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to move the UN troops out of Lebanon since they faced becoming hostages of the Hezbollah, which could use them as human shields. Israeli forces have been fighting the Hezbollah at various points near the border over the past week.
In its version of events, the Israeli military said militants of the Iran-backed group Hezbollah had fired anti-tank missiles at Israeli troops, wounding 25 of them. The attack was very close to a UNIFIL post and a tank helping evacuate the casualties under fire then backed into the UNIFIL post, it said.
“It is not storming a base. It is not trying to enter a base. It was a tank under heavy fire, a mass casualty event, backing up to get out of harm’s way,” Israeli military’s spokesperson Nadav Shoshani said. The military said it used a smoke screen to provide cover for the evacuation of the wounded soldiers and posed no danger to the U.N. peacekeeping force.
“Withdraw UNIFIL From Hezbollah Strongholds”
Earlier, In a televised address, Netanyahu told U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres that “the time has come for you to withdraw UNIFIL from Hezbollah strongholds and from the combat zones.”
PM Netanyahu: “I appeal to the UN Secretary General; Your refusal to evacuate UNIFIL soldiers has turned them into hostages of Hezbollah.”
PM Netanyahu: “I appeal to the UN Secretary General; Your refusal to evacuate UNIFIL soldiers has turned them into hostages of Hezbollah.”
Full remarks >>https://t.co/YOUp2Yvw20 pic.twitter.com/tfSGX83bwr
— Prime Minister of Israel (@IsraeliPM) October 13, 2024
“The IDF has requested this repeatedly and has met with repeated refusal, which has the effect of providing Hezbollah terrorists with human shields,” he added.
Netanyahu warned that the refusal by the UN to pull out its troops endangered them as well as the Israeli soldiers. “The simple and obvious way to ensure this is just get them out of the danger zone.”
In the last few days, the UNIFIL has claimed that the IDF had struck a number of its posts.
Guterres responded by praising UNIFIL’s peacekeepers, who “remain in all positions,” U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said in a statement . In the statement issued later on Sunday, he added that “the U.N. flag continues to fly.”
(with inputs from Reuters)
