Netanyahu to UN: Get your peacekeepers out of Lebanon

UPDATE 10/13: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that Israel regretted the “harm done” to UNIFIL peacekeepers this week in Southern Lebanon but if the United Nations doesn't want further injuries to its forces then it needs to “remove them from the danger zone.”

UPDATE 10/12: A fifth UN peacekeeper has been injured in the village of Naquora in Southern Lebanon. According to UNIFIL the peacekeeper was undergoing surgery from a bullet wound on Saturday but would not confirm how he became to be shot. UNIFIL also said its buildings at a position in the village of Ramyah sustained "significant damage due to explosions from nearby shelling" on Friday. Also Friday, two Sri Lankan men serving as peacekeepers were also injured in Naquora. The IDF acknowledged that its troops were responsible and would be investigated "at the highest levels".

According to reports, Indonesian citizens serving as peacekeepers under the UNIFIL (United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon) were injured when the Israeli military fired on their headquarters Thursday.

This is the third incident in two days. From UNIFIL today:

This morning, two peacekeepers were injured after an IDF Merkava tank fired its weapon toward an observation tower at UNIFIL’s headquarters in Naqoura, directly hitting it and causing them to fall. The injuries are fortunately, this time, not serious, but they remain in hospital.

IDF soldiers also fired on UN position (UNP) 1-31 in Labbouneh, hitting the entrance to the bunker where peacekeepers were sheltering, and damaging vehicles and a communications system. An IDF drone was observed flying inside the UN position up to the bunker entrance.

Yesterday, IDF soldiers deliberately fired at and disabled the position’s perimeter-monitoring cameras. They also deliberately fired on UNP 1-32A in Ras Naqoura, where regular Tripartite meetings were held before the conflict began, damaging lighting and a relay station.

Israel has been pressuring UNIFIL to move away from the Blue Line for over a week now. UNIFIL has been patrolling the U.N.-monitored "Blue Line" separating Lebanon and Israel and the disputed territory in between since 2006 under U.N. resolution 1701. Within the last week, UNIFIL has rejected requests to leave. Meanwhile, Irish blue hats in a nearby outpost have been apparently threatened with evacuation, according to Irish President Michael Higgins, but as of today say they are digging in despite the "close proximity" of IDF troops.

UNIFIL said in its statement that "any deliberate attack on peacekeepers is a grave violation of international humanitarian law and of Security Council resolution 1701."

One shouldn't expect an apology anytime soon. Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the United Nations a "swamp of anti-semitic bile" in his General Assembly speech last month. Furthermore, the Israeli military has shown no concern for red lines when it comes to distinguishing between enemy and civilian, killing a record number of healthcare and aid workers, and journalists in the last year. Its expanded operations into Lebanon this month have been illuminating in this regard. In one three-day period alone, 40 firefighters, paramedics, and health care workers were killed in Israeli airstrikes, according to the Lebanese health ministry.

Violence against U.N. peacekeepers is rare, with spikes in these events lately occurring amid the turmoil in places like Mali and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Israel is not listening to the U.N., that is clear. The United States is the only voice it may listen to regarding red lines, like not declaring war on international peacekeepers that you agreed should be there, unmolested, for the better part of the last 20 years (though Israel will say it is UNIFIL's fault Hezbollah has continued to arm up, a violation of 1701, that doesn't give them the right to fire tank mortars at them).

Unfortunately the Biden administration has yet to intercede on this front. There is no State Department briefing today but we will update if and when the White House has anything to say on the matter.