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Lebanon Requests Extension of UNIFIL Mandate without Modification

Vehicles belonging to UN peacekeepers drive along a road along the Lebanon-Israel border near the southern Lebanese town of Kfar Kila on September 1, 2019. (AFP)
Vehicles belonging to UN peacekeepers drive along a road along the Lebanon-Israel border near the southern Lebanese town of Kfar Kila on September 1, 2019. (AFP)
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Lebanon Requests Extension of UNIFIL Mandate without Modification

Vehicles belonging to UN peacekeepers drive along a road along the Lebanon-Israel border near the southern Lebanese town of Kfar Kila on September 1, 2019. (AFP)
Vehicles belonging to UN peacekeepers drive along a road along the Lebanon-Israel border near the southern Lebanese town of Kfar Kila on September 1, 2019. (AFP)

Lebanon said on Monday it wanted to extend the mandate of United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) without any modifications to its mission.

President Michel Aoun delivered the request during a meeting at the Presidential Palace with UN Under-Secretary-General for Peace Operations, Jean-Pierre Lacroix.

He also noted the adoption of the UNIFIL budget on June 30, remarking that despite regional tensions, southern Lebanon has been enjoying stability since the July 2006 war between Hezbollah and Israel.

Aoun praised the existing cooperation between the Lebanese Army and UNIFIL, reiterating his condemnation of Israeli air violations, especially recent ones, through raids launched against Syrian territories from Lebanese airspace.

Aoun reiterated Lebanon’s commitment to the full implementation of UN resolution 1701, calling on the UN to compel Israel to also respect it.

For his part, Lacroix stressed that the UN will always stand by Lebanon, adding that UNIFIL will continue to implement resolution 1701, through the existing cooperation between the Lebanese army and international forces.

Lacroix also held talks with parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and caretaker Prime Minister Hassan Diab.

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UNICEF: Gaza Faces Man-made Drought as Water Systems Collapse

FILE PHOTO: Palestinian children gather near containers used for water, in Gaza City, April 6, 2025. REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Palestinian children gather near containers used for water, in Gaza City, April 6, 2025. REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa/File Photo
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UNICEF: Gaza Faces Man-made Drought as Water Systems Collapse

FILE PHOTO: Palestinian children gather near containers used for water, in Gaza City, April 6, 2025. REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Palestinian children gather near containers used for water, in Gaza City, April 6, 2025. REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa/File Photo

Gaza is facing a man-made drought as its water systems collapse, the United Nations' children agency said on Friday.

"Children will begin to die of thirst ... Just 40% of drinking water production facilities remain functional," UNICEF spokesperson James Elder told reporters in Geneva.

"We are way below emergency standards in terms of drinking water for people in Gaza," he added, according to Reuters.

UNICEF also reported a 50% increase in children aged six months to 5 years admitted for treatment of malnutrition from April to May in Gaza, and half a million people going hungry.

It said the US-backed aid distribution system run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) was "making a desperate situation worse."

On Friday at least 25 people awaiting aid trucks or seeking aid were killed by Israeli fire south of Netzarim in central Gaza Strip, according to local health authorities. On Thursday at least 51 people were killed by Israeli gunfire and military strikes, including 12 people who tried to approach a site operated by the GHF in the central Gaza Strip.

Elder, who was recently in Gaza, said he had many testimonials of women and children injured while trying to receive food aid, including a young boy who was wounded by a tank shell and later died of his injuries.

He said a lack of public clarity on when the sites, some of which are in combat zones, were open was causing mass casualty events.

"There have been instances where information (was) shared that a site is open, but then it's communicated on social media that they're closed, but that information was shared when Gaza's internet was down and people had no access to it," he said.

On Wednesday, the GHF said in a statement it had distributed three million meals across three of its aid sites without an incident.

On Friday at least 12 people were killed in an airstrike on a house belonging to the Ayyash family in Deir Al-Balah, taking the day's death toll to 37.