UNIFIL patrols continue in southern Lebanon to ‘calm the situation’

1 / 2
UNIFIL soldiers in Klayaa, southern Lebanon, Mar. 29, 2024. (Reuters)
2 / 2
UNIFIL vehicles are driven along the main road leading to Lebanon’s southern town of Naqura, close to the border with Israel, Oct. 27, 2022. (AFP)
Short Url
Updated 03 April 2024
Follow

UNIFIL patrols continue in southern Lebanon to ‘calm the situation’

  • Israeli army fires phosphorus shells at town of Aita Al-Shaab 
  • Two UNIFIL vehicles were targeted, on Saturday, near the border town of Rmeish

BEIRUT: Peacekeepers with the UN Interim Force in Lebanon are present on the ground in the south of the country “despite the escalation in tensions” between Israel and Hezbollah, UNIFIL spokesperson Andrea Tenenti said on Wednesday.  

He added that UNIFIL continues “to carry out its activities, including patrols, and continues its main work with the parties to calm the situation and reduce tensions in the region.”  

On Tuesday UNIFIL declared that its patrols in southern Lebanon would cease temporarily. 

The decision was made while the international forces’ command investigated an incident on Saturday in which two vehicles carrying four officers were targeted in a valley near the border town of Rmeish. 

The officers, who were from Australia, Switzerland, Norway and Chile, along with a Lebanese translator, suffered injuries, some of which were serious. Lebanon accused Israel of the attack. 

While UNIFIL said it was “still in the process of collecting evidence,” reports from Lebanon’s media on Wednesday suggested that a field investigation by the Lebanese Army indicated that the explosion was caused by an anti-personnel device, and not an Israeli drone bombing as previously thought. 

The investigation showed that “the package is a leftover of the Israeli enemy, as the entire area is full of enemy remnants as a result of the recent Israeli aggression.” 

Al-Akhbar, a Lebanese newspaper that is close to Hezbollah, reported the news citing an “informed source,” but did not explain how the device exploded. 

It said that “there was also a mine 15 meters (49 feet, 2 inches) away from the site of the explosion,” and pointed out that the UNIFIL patrol “did not inform the Lebanese Army of its intention to conduct a patrol within the framework of coordination between them.” 

Israel has accused Hezbollah of causing the explosion. 

Avichay Adraee, an Israeli army spokesperson, announced on X that “according to the information available to the (army),” the incident was caused by the detonation of an explosive device. “The device had previously been planted by Hezbollah in this area.” 

Hezbollah carried out military attacks on Israeli army bases on Wednesday. 

They claimed in a statement to have “targeted the Al-Rahib site and a group of Israeli soldiers nearby using missile weapons. This was in response to Israeli attacks on civilian homes, including the recent incident in the southern border town of Yarin where a woman named Alia Abdel Karim was injured during an Israeli raid.” 

Hezbollah also targeted “a new command center located in the Pranit barracks.” 

The Israeli media said: “A number of rockets were fired from southern Lebanon toward an Israeli army position in Har Dov.” 

Heavy Israeli artillery fire targeting southern towns resumed, hitting the outskirts of Naqoura, Jabal Al-Labouneh, Alma Al-Shaab, Al-Dhahira, and valleys near Shehin and Tayr Harfa. 

The bombing was accompanied by reconnaissance aircraft flying over Tyre and Bint Jbeil districts, while warplanes attacked the villages of Hebbariye and Kfar Hamam in the Arqoub area. 

The Israeli army also said that it “fired 60 phosphorus shells, 20 heavy artillery shells, and 20 (other) shells directly at the town of Aita Al-Shaab and attacked Ramyah with five phosphorus shells.” 

Hezbollah, meanwhile, was mourning one of its members, Hassan Ibrahim Alloul, who was from the town of Saskikiyah in southern Lebanon. Alloul died in a bombing attack on the town of Blida.

Battleground: Jerusalem
The biblical battle for the Holy City

Enter


keywords

Iran Guards chief says Netanyahu ICC warrant ‘political death’ of Israel

Updated 3 sec ago
Follow

Iran Guards chief says Netanyahu ICC warrant ‘political death’ of Israel

  • Revolutionary Guards chief General Hossein Salami calls the ICC warrant ‘a welcome move’
  • Salami adds it is a ‘great victory for the Palestinian and Lebanese resistance movements’
TEHRAN: The head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards on Friday described the arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and a former defense minister as the “end and political death” of Israel, in a speech.
“This means the end and political death of the Zionist regime, a regime that today lives in absolute political isolation in the world and its officials can no longer travel to other countries,” Revolutionary Guards chief General Hossein Salami said in the speech aired on state TV.
In the first official reaction by Iran, Salami called the ICC warrant “a welcome move” and a “great victory for the Palestinian and Lebanese resistance movements,” both supported by the Islamic republic.
Israel and its allies criticized the ICC’s decision to issue an arrest warrant on Thursday for Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu and the country’s former defense minister Yoav Gallant.
The court also issued a warrant for the arrest of Hamas’s military chief Mohammed Deif.
The warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant were issued in response to accusations of crimes against humanity and war crimes during Israel’s war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, sparked by the Palestinian militant group’s attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.
The move drew angry reactions from Netanyahu, who denounced it as antisemitic and from Israel’s closest allies, including the United States, but was welcomed by rights groups including Amnesty International.
The ICC’s move theoretically limits the movement of Netanyahu, as any of the court’s 124 national members would be obliged to arrest him on their territory.
The court’s chief prosecutor Karim Khan urged the body’s members to act on the warrants, and for non-members to work together in “upholding international law.”

Israel armys say ‘eliminated’ five Hamas militants in north Gaza raid

Updated 22 November 2024
Follow

Israel armys say ‘eliminated’ five Hamas militants in north Gaza raid

  • Israeli military: Slain militants had ‘led the murders and kidnappings in the area of Mefalsim’

JERUSALEM: The Israeli military said on Friday it had “eliminated” five Hamas militants, including two commanders, in an overnight raid in northern Gaza’s Beit Lahia.
In a statement, the military and the Shin Bet security agency said they had “eliminated five Hamas terrorists, including a Nukhba (commando) company commander and an additional company commander who participated in the Oct. 7 massacre” that sparked the Gaza war last year, adding that the slain militants had “led the murders and kidnappings in the area of Mefalsim,” a kibbutz in southern Israel.


Strikes hit Beirut’s southern suburbs after Israeli evacuation call

Updated 22 November 2024
Follow

Strikes hit Beirut’s southern suburbs after Israeli evacuation call

  • Latest raids follow intense Israeli attacks on south Beirut as well as other areas in Lebanon’s south and east

BEIRUT: Strikes hit the southern suburbs of Beirut, a bastion of Hezbollah militants, shortly after an Israeli evacuation warning early on Friday, according to Lebanese official media and AFPTV footage.

The state-run National News Agency said “enemy warplanes” had carried two raids on south Beirut, and that “thick smoke was seen rising from the vicinity of the Lebanese University” in the Hadath neighborhood.

Live AFPTV footage showed plumes of smoke over the area after the Israeli military called for the evacuation of three locations, warning on social media of imminent attacks.

The military later said in a statement its “fighter jets completed a new round of strikes” on Beirut’s southern suburbs.

The latest raids follow intense Israeli attacks on south Beirut as well as other areas in Lebanon’s south and east, where Israel says it has been targeting Iran-backed Hezbollah militants.

More than 11 months of cross-border fire between Israel and Hezbollah over the Gaza conflict escalated into all-out war in September, with Israel conducting an extensive bombing campaign, primarily targeting Hezbollah strongholds, and sending ground troops into southern Lebanon.

The Lebanese health ministry said at least 52 people were killed on Thursday in Israeli strikes, including some 40 dead in Lebanon’s east.

On Friday, the Israeli army also issued evacuation warnings for parts of the coastal city of Tyre and the nearby Burj Al-Shemali Palestinian refugee camp.

The pace of the strikes across Lebanon has increased since US envoy Amos Hochstein ended his visit to Beirut on Wednesday, seeking to broker an end to the Israel-Hezbollah war.

Lebanon’s health ministry said Thursday that at least 3,583 people had been killed in the violence since October 2023. Most of the deaths have been since September this year.


UN could meet with Israel PM despite warrant: UN

Updated 22 November 2024
Follow

UN could meet with Israel PM despite warrant: UN

  • UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and Netanyahu have not spoken since the war started
  • UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said UN policy on contacts with people facing arrest warrants dates back to a document issued in 2013

UNITED NATIONS: The arrest warrant issued against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the war in Gaza does not bar UN officials from meeting with him in the course of their work, the UN said Thursday.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and Netanyahu have not spoken since the war started as a result of the Hamas attack against Israel on October 7, 2023, although there have been contacts with the Israeli leader by UN officials in the region.
Guterres has been declared persona non grata by Israel, which accuses him of being biased in favor of the Palestinians. So talks between him and Netanyahu are very unlikely.
After the warrants issued Thursday by the International Criminal Court against Netanyahu, former defense minister Yoav Gallant and Hamas’s military chief Mohammed Deif, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said UN policy on contacts with people facing arrest warrants dates back to a document issued in 2013.
“The rule is that there should not be any contacts between UN officials and individuals subject to arrest warrants,” Dujarric said.
But limited contacts are allowed “to address fundamental issues, operational issues, and our ability to carry out our mandates,” he added.
In late October, at a summit of the BRICS countries in Russia, Guterres met with President Vladimir Putin, who faces an arrest warrant from the ICP over the war in Ukraine.
That meeting, during which Guterres reiterated his condemnation of the Russian invasion, angered Ukraine.


Palestinians welcome ICC arrest warrants for Israeli PM and former defense minister

Updated 22 November 2024
Follow

Palestinians welcome ICC arrest warrants for Israeli PM and former defense minister

  • Palestinian Authority calls on UN member states to ensure the warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant, who are accused of war crimes, are acted upon
  • The EU’s chief diplomat, Josep Borrel, says decision is ‘binding’ on all members of the International Criminal Court

LONDON: Palestinians welcomed the decision by the International Criminal Court on Thursday to issue arrest warrants for Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former minister of defense, Yoav Gallant.

The Palestinian Authority said the court’s decision comes as Israeli forces continue to bomb Gaza in a conflict that has killed nearly 45,000 Palestinians since the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas, and it hopes the ruling will help to restore faith in international law, the official Palestinian WAFA news agency reported.

Netanyahu and Gallant are the first leading officials from a nation allied with the West against whom the ICC has issued arrest warrants since the court was established in July 2002. It also issued an arrest warrant for Mohammed Deif, the head of the military wing of Hamas. Israeli authorities said in August he was killed by their forces in an attack the previous month, though Hamas have not confirmed this.

All three men are accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity over their actions during the war in Gaza or the Oct. 7 attacks.

The PA said the decision to issue warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant was important because Palestinians “are being subjected to genocide and war crimes, represented by starvation as a method of warfare,” as well as mass displacement and collective punishment.

The PA, which signed up to the ICC in 2015, called on all UN member states to ensure the warrants are acted upon and to “cut off contact and meetings with the international wanted men, Netanyahu and Gallant.” Israel is not a member of the ICC.

The EU’s chief diplomat, Josep Borrel, posted a message on social media platform X on Thursday in which he described the court’s decisions as “binding” on all those who have signed up to it.

“These decisions are binding on all states party to the Rome Statute (the treaty that established the ICC), which includes all EU member states,” he wrote.

Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving prime minister who has spent 17 years in office during three spells in charge since 1996, denounced the decision by the ICC to issue the warrant as “antisemitic.”

He said it would “have serious consequences for the court and those who will cooperate with it in this matter.”