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Oct 16, 2024

UNIFIL voices attack on northern Lebanon; UN urges probe

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FA News Desk
UN Building in New York

The United Nations has called for an “immediate, independent and comprehensive investigation” into the Israeli attack on the village of Aito in northern Lebanon on Tuesday. It is said that 22 civilians were killed in the attack.

The Gaza War began on October 7, 2023, when the armed wing of the Palestinian group Hamas suddenly attacked Israel from Gaza.

Hezbollah had been shelling Israel across the border for about a year, shelling along the Israel-Lebanon border almost daily that had displaced tens of thousands of people on both sides. The group has been saying that the attack was in response to Israel’s destruction of sites and airstrikes in Gaza.

The U.N. Security Council expressed “strong concern” Monday as Israel has fired on and wounded U.N. peacekeepers (UNIFIL) in southern Lebanon during intensified fighting, reiterating its support for their role in supporting security in the region.

More than 1,400 people in Lebanon, including civilians, medics and Hezbollah fighters, have been killed and 1.2 million displaced in the past month. Around 60 Israelis have been killed in Hezbollah strikes in the past year. Israel says it wants to drive the militant group away from the border so some 60,000 displaced Israelis can return to their homes.

The Security Council statement called on all parties to abide by international humanitarian law, which requires the protection of civilians.

Since the escalation of hostilities between Israel and Lebanon on 17 September 2024, WHO has verified 23 attacks on health care in Lebanon that have led to 72 deaths and 43 injuries among health workers and patients.

WHO continues to coordinate with the Lebanese Red Cross and hospitals to equip necessary facilities and is also working with Ministry of Public Health of Lebanon to establish trauma centers within the existing referral hospitals and to plan for the deployment of Emergency Medical Teams.

Meanwhile, OCHA warned in an update on Tuesday that the situation in northern Gaza is “catastrophic.”. The humanitarian situation in Yemen continues to worsen, both in scale and severity.

UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) also condemned Monday’s strike on the al Aqsa hospital courtyard.

Also, Presidents of Iran Masoud Pezeshkian and France Emmanuel Macron discussed ways to stop the conflict and achieve a ceasefire between Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Israel.

According to a statement published on Sunday on the website of the Iranian President’s office, two presidents in a phone call talked about the escalation of tension in Lebanon.

The Lebanese Health Ministry reported on Sunday that the death toll from Israeli airstrikes on Lebanon since October 8, 2023, has reached 2,306, with injuries totalling 10,698.

Nepal strongly condemns recent attacks on the UNIFIL peacekeepers & urges parties of the conflict to guarantee their safety & security. Such actions must stop immediately & should be adequately investigated. 

As the countries contributors to the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon we, 34 UNIFIL-contributing countries: Republic   of   Armenia,   Republic   of   Austria,   People’s   Republic    of    Bangladesh, Federative Republic of Brazil, Kingdom of Cambodia, People’s Republic of China, Republic of Cyprus, Republic of El Salvador, Republic of Estonia, Republic of Fiji, Republic of Finland, Republic of France, Republic of Ghana, Republic of Guatemala, Hungary, Republic of Indonesia, Ireland, Republic of Italy, Republic of Kazakhstan, Republic of Korea, Republic of Latvia, Malaysia, Republic of Malta, Mongolia, Nepal, Kingdom of Netherlands, Republic of Poland, State of Qatar, Republic of Sierra Leone, Kingdom  of  Spain,  Democratic  Socialist  Republic  of  Sri  Lanka,   Republic   of   Turkiye, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, United Republic of Tanzania, in a joint statement, reaffirm our full support for UNIFIL’s mission and activities, whose principal aim is to bring stabilization and lasting peace in South Lebanon as well as in the Middle East, in line with relevant resolutions of the UN Security Council.

We consider UNIFIL’s role as particularly crucial in light of the escalating situation in the region. We therefore strongly condemn recent attacks on the UNIFIL peacekeepers. Such actions must stop immediately and should be adequately investigated, the statement reads.

We urge the parties of the conflict to respect UNIFIL’s presence, which entails the obligation to guarantee the safety and security of its personnel at all times, so that they can continue to implement its mandate and continue their work of mediation and support for peace and stability in Lebanon and the entire region. We reiterate our commitment to multilateral cooperation with the UN at its core. We call for respect for international law, in particular the Charter of the United Nations as well as the relevant resolutions of the Security Council, added the statement.

With no let-up to the ongoing Israel-Lebanon conflict, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) on Tuesday called for an independent probe into an Israeli airstrike that hit an apartment block in northern Lebanon a day earlier that left a reported 22 dead.

Some 1.2 million people have now been displaced across Lebanon, according to the country’s government. Desperate scenes have also been reported on Lebanon’s border with Syria, where more than 283,000 people have now crossed into northern Syria, the UNHCR official said.

Meanwhile in central Gaza, about 93,000 children under ten received the second dose of polio vaccines during the second round of the inoculation campaign to stave off the highly contagious and debilitating disease.