UN peacekeepers will stay in Lebanon despite mounting pressure from Israel
The United Nations peacekeeping force says its peacekeepers will stay in Lebanon despite mounting pressure from Israel to leave its positions in the country.
Andrea Tenenti, spokesman for the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) said Saturday that Israel’s military asked peacekeepers to withdraw “from the positions along the Blue Line... or up to five kilometers (three miles) from the Blue Line.”
“But there was a unanimous decision to stay,” said the spokesman.
The Blue Line is the term used for the demarcation line between Lebanon and the occupied territories.
Tenenti said Israel’s invasion of the country had inflicted “a lot of damage” on its positions in south Lebanon. He said, working is “very difficult because there is a lot of damage, even inside the base.”
“Just last night, on the position of the Ghanaian peacekeepers, just outside, the blast was so strong that it destroyed some of the containers inside very badly.”
Tenenti warned that Israel’s invasion of Lebanon could very soon turn “into a regional conflict with catastrophic impact for everyone.”
In a separate statement, the UNIFIL said its headquarters in Naqoura had again been hit, with a peacekeeper struck by gunfire late Friday. The peacekeeper is in a stable condition.
The shooting occurred a day after Israel’s military fired on the headquarters for the second straight day. It was the fifth peacekeeper who was wounded in Lebanon in just two days, according to the statement.
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