Beirut, Lebanon.- The international community condemned this Friday that the Israeli Army for the second consecutive day attacked the UN blue helmets in Lebanon, which Italy described as possible “war crimes.”
The UN force in Lebanon (Finul) announced today that two Sri Lankan blue helmets were injured near the border with Israel and estimated that the bombing carried out by the Israeli Army represented “a very great risk” for its troops.
Two other peacekeepers, of Indonesian nationality, suffered injuries on Thursday after an Israeli bombardment against the FINUL headquarters. Italy even mentioned the possibility of classifying them as “war crimes” and France summoned the Israeli Ambassador today.
Finul, which has some 10,000 troops deployed in southern Lebanon, indicated today that “explosions had occurred for the second time in 48 hours” near an “observation tower” of its headquarters and that “two blue helmets were injured”.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) today called for the UN to launch an investigation into Israeli attacks against blue helmets. U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said he spoke with Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Thursday night and urged him to “ensure the security of U.N. forces.” U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres described the attacks as “intolerable” and asserted that they should not be repeated. “I condemn that there were shots fired at a United Nations facility in which two blue helmets were injured, which constitutes a violation of international humanitarian law,” the leader declared to the press from Laos, where he was participating in a Southeast Asian regional summit. “This incident is intolerable and cannot be repeated,” emphasized the head of the United Nations.
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