The Israeli army admitted on Sunday that it had opened fire on troops of the UN peacekeeping mission deployed in southern Lebanon (UNFIL), “mistaking them” “as suspicious” due to bad weather conditions. There were no injuries.
“After an examination, it was determined that the suspects were UN soldiers who were patrolling the area and were classified as suspicious due to bad weather conditions,” the Israeli army said in a statement.
Israel insists that its troops did not “deliberately fire at UNFIL soldiers” and that “the incident is under investigation.” The response comes after peacekeepers reported that an Israeli tank had opened fire on its troops in Lebanese territory on Sunday.
“The bullets from the heavy machine guns hit about five meters away from the peacekeepers, who were traveling on foot and had to take refuge on the ground,” the UN peacekeeping mission explained.
UNFIL called on Israel to cease its attacks “through the liaison channels” of its forces and said this “constitutes a grave violation of United Nations Resolution 1701.”
UN Security Council Resolution 1701 is the one that put an end to the 2006 war between Israel and Lebanon, providing for the Israeli withdrawal from the Arab country, the deployment of Lebanese forces and peacekeepers in southern Lebanon and the disarmament of the Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah. It is also the resolution on which the ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah is based, which came into force in November last year, after a year of exchanges of attacks and months of Israeli offensive on Lebanese territory.
For its part, the Lebanese army has denounced that Israeli attacks on its territory prevent the completion of the military deployment in southern Lebanon, as foreseen by the ceasefire agreement, after Israel opened fire on the troops of the UN peacekeeping mission.
“The Israeli enemy persists in its violations of Lebanese sovereignty, causing instability in Lebanon and preventing the completion of the army’s deployment in the south,” the Lebanese armed forces denounced in a statement published on its account on the social network X (formerly Twitter).
The ceasefire that came into force in November 2024 between Israel and the Shiite group Hezbollah provides, among other things, for the withdrawal of the Israeli army from southern Lebanon, the withdrawal of the Lebanese armed movement further north and the deployment of the Lebanese armed forces in its place.
