It doesn’t take much in the Middle East for regional conflicts to take on an even more frightening dimension. Fears were shared at the Med9 summit in Paphos Giorgia Meloni joins Emmanuel Macron and Pedro Sánchez in condemning Israeli military attacks on UNIFIL troops in Lebanon. “This is unacceptable and must not happen again.” It was launched with a unanimous warning by the leaders of Italy, France and Spain and written in black and white in a joint statement.
To put more pressure on Israel, a flurry of phone calls with Benjamin Netanyahu in the next few hours cannot be ruled out. Meanwhile, another warning comes from the French President and the Spanish Prime Minister: “Stop arms sales to Israel, which is the only lever to end the conflict.” Their voices include that of the current US President, Joe Biden: “Israel must no longer attack UN forces in Lebanon,” he said laconically.
So far, however, the anger and calls from the UN and Italy have been fruitless: Israel today attacked UNIFIL positions in southern Lebanon “for the second time in 48 hours”, firing on an observation post at the Nakura headquarters. Two more peacekeepers were injured, this time a Sinhalese, one of whom is in critical condition.
However, in Labouneh, near the Blue Line on the border between the two countries, a portion of the boundary wall at Site 1-31 collapsed. Manned by Italian soldiers and operating under the command of the Sassari Brigade, and had already attacked from IDF tanks the previous day. According to a reconstruction provided by UNIFIL, “several T-walls of our 1-31 position fell and Israeli army tanks moved close to the UN position when the IDF bulldozed the perimeter”.
“Our peacekeepers remained on the ground,” the mission added in a statement, announcing that it had dispatched “a UNIFIL rapid reaction force to assist and reinforce the position.”
It was not a “further attack” on Italian bases, however, the Defense Ministry noted, He explained that “recovery of artefacts” damaged in “recent days” at the site is underway, and that “operations are being planned and carried out” in coordination with Italian UNIFIL units, the Lebanese Armed Forces and the Israeli Defense Forces. Israel has vowed to shed light on the attacks on the UN force and has launched a “deep investigation at the highest level”.
(Uniononline/E.Fr.)
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