BEIRUT, Oct 10 (Reuters) - Israeli troops opened fire at three positions held by U.N. peacekeepers in southern Lebanon on Thursday, according to a U.N. source who was not immediately able to specify the type of fire.

The source said one of the locations fired at was UNIFIL’s main base at Naqoura. There was no official statement from UNIFIL or immediate comment from the Israeli military.

UNIFIL had said on Sunday that it was “deeply concerned by recent activities” by the Israeli military near a peacekeeper position in southwestern Lebanon.

In a letter to Israel’s military dated Oct. 3 and seen by Reuters, UNIFIL had objected to Israeli military vehicles and troops positioning themselves “in immediate proximity” to U.N. positions, “thereby endangering the safety and security of UNIFIL personnel and premises”.

  • @filister
    11•3 months ago

    In 2006, during the last major confrontation, a UN Observation Position (OP) came under Israeli artillery and aerial bombardment.

    Despite repeated appeals to the IDF to stop firing, throughout 25 July, the OP on the outskirts of the village of Khiam was finally destroyed.

    Four UN military observers from Austria, Canada, China and Finland were killed.

    Israel’s ambassador to the US, Danny Ayalon, said “Unifil obviously got caught in the middle", and suggested that the deadly fire could have come from Hezbollah.

    A UN investigation concluded that the base had been destroyed by a 500kg precision-guided bomb dropped by an Israeli warplane.

    Israel concluded that human error was to blame.

    In 1996, during an earlier round of fighting, Israeli artillery shells hit another UN compound, at Qana, where around 800 displaced Lebanese civilians were sheltering.

    106 civilians were killed and four Fijian peacekeepers were injured.