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UN says Israeli tanks burst into peacekeeper base, Israel gives different account

Story by James Mackenzie, Maayan Lubell and Michelle Nichols

Israeli military vehicles in southern Lebanon, October 13, 2024. REUTERS/Artorn Pookasook© Thomson Reuters

By James Mackenzie, Maayan Lubell and Michelle Nichols

JERUSALEM/NEW YORK (Reuters) -The United Nations said on Sunday Israeli tanks had burst through the gates of a base of its peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon, the latest accusation of Israeli violations and attacks denounced by its own allies.

The UNIFIL peacekeeping force said two Israeli Merkava tanks destroyed the main gate of a base and forcibly entered before dawn on Sunday morning. After the tanks left, shells exploded 100 metres (yards) away, releasing smoke which blew across the base and sickened U.N. personnel, it said in a statement.

In its version of events, the Israeli military said militants of the Iran-backed group Hezbollah had fired anti-tank missiles at Israeli troops, wounding 25 of them. The attack was very close to a UNIFIL post and a tank helping evacuate the casualties under fire then backed into the UNIFIL post, it said.

Israeli soldiers enter a military helicopter after it dropped off patients that were injured in a drone attack from Lebanon, amid cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel, at Rambam Health Care Campus in Haifa, Israel, October 13, 2024. Lebanon's Hezbollah claimed responsibility for the attack. REUTERS/Rami Shlush© Thomson Reuters

"It is not storming a base. It is not trying to enter a base. It was a tank under heavy fire, mass casualty event, backing up to get out of harm's way," the military's international spokesperson Nadav Shoshani told reporters.

In a statement, the military said it used a smoke screen to provide cover for the evacuation of the wounded soldiers but its actions posed no danger to the U.N. peacekeeping force.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement addressed to U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres: "The time has come for you to withdraw UNIFIL from Hezbollah strongholds and from the combat zones."

Khiam, Lebanon, October 13, 2024. REUTERS/Karamallah Daher/FILE PHOTO© Thomson Reuters

"The IDF has requested this repeatedly and has met with repeated refusal, which has the effect of providing Hezbollah terrorists with human shields."

Guterres paid tribute to UNIFIL's peacekeepers, who "remain in all positions," U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said in a statement issued later on Sunday, adding that "the U.N. flag continues to fly."

The Secretary-General reiterated a warning that peacekeepers must not be targeted, he said.

"Attacks against peacekeepers are in breach of international law, including international humanitarian law. They may constitute a war crime," Dujarric said.

UNIFIL has said previous Israeli attacks on a watchtower, cameras, communications equipment and lighting had limited its monitoring abilities. U.N. sources say they fear any violations of international law in the conflict will be impossible to monitor.

CONFLICT FLARING FOR A YEAR

Hezbollah, which Israel has been battling on the ground in southern Lebanon since it launched an incursion at the start of this month, denies Israel's accusation that it uses the proximity of peacekeepers for protection.

The opening to a Hezbollah tunnel shaft which Israel's military says is 200 metres away from a UN post, Lebanon, October 13, 2024. REUTERS/Artorn Pookasook© Thomson Reuters

The conflict between Israel and Hezbollah resumed a year ago when the Iranian-backed group began firing rockets at Israeli positions in support of Hamas at the start of the Gaza war and has sharply escalated in recent weeks.

On Sunday, Hezbollah said it attacked a camp of the Israeli military's Golani Brigade camp in Binyamina in northern Israel with a "swarm of drones". Some of the unmanned aircraft, which included drone models Hezbollah has not used before, penetrated Israeli air defense radars without being detected, the group said in a statement.

Israel's military said four of its soldiers were killed and seven severely injured in the incident. The incident was being examined, the military said.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, typically one of Israel's most vocal supporters among Western European leaders, spoke to Netanyahu by phone on Sunday and denounced the "unacceptable" Israeli attacks, her government said.

Italy has more than a thousand troops in the 10,000-strong UNIFIL force, making it one of the biggest contributors of personnel. France and Spain, which each have nearly 700 soldiers in the force, have also condemned the Israeli attacks.

The presence of UNIFIL puts peacekeepers from 50 separate countries in harm's way, in a force initially set up in southern Lebanon in 1978.

Scorched shrubbery in front of Lebanon's border with Israel, during hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel, in southern Lebanon, October 13, 2024. REUTERS/Artorn Pookasook© Thomson Reuters

The area has seen decades of conflict, with Israel invading in 1982, occupying southern Lebanon until 2000 and again fighting a major five-week war against Hezbollah in 2006, which ended with a ceasefire monitored by UNIFIL.

Israel's assault against Hezbollah over the past three weeks has uprooted 1.2 million Lebanese and inflicted an unprecedented blow on the group by killing most of its senior leadership.

Lebanon's government says more than 2,100 people have been killed and 10,000 wounded in over a year of fighting, mainly over the past few weeks. The toll does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but includes scores of women and children.

Ammunition and what Israel's military says is an Iranian IED, designed to explode a gate and allow Hezbollah forces to enter Israel during an attack, amid hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel, in southern Lebanon, October 13, 2024. REUTERS/Artorn Pookasook© Thomson Reuters

REGION ON TENTERHOOKS

Israeli officials say UNIFIL has failed in its mission of upholding U.N. Resolution 1701, passed after the 2006 war, which calls for the border area of southern Lebanon to be free of weapons or troops other than those of the Lebanese state.

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, in a call with Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant on Saturday, expressed "deep concern" about reports Israeli forces had fired on peacekeeper positions. He urged Israel to ensure their safety and that of the Lebanese military, which is not party to Israel's conflict with Hezbollah.  

The Middle East meanwhile remains on high alert for Israel to retaliate against Iran for an Oct 1 barrage of long range missiles launched in response to Israel's assaults on Lebanon.

Iran said on Sunday it has "no red lines" in defending itself. Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi's comments appeared intended to counter suggestions that Iran would absorb an Israeli strike without a response, as it did earlier this year when Israel last struck Iran after a volley of Iranian missiles.

(Reporting by Ahmed Tolba, Adam Makary and Hatem Maher in Cairo and Tala Ramadan in Dubai, James Mackenzie in Jerusalem and Laila Bassam in BeirutWriting by Michael Georgy, Peter Graff and Simon Lewis;Editing by Ros Russell, Frances Kerry and Diane Craft)

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