Israel is increasing its daily violations against southern Lebanon. For days, it has been constructing more sections of a border wall in the South in violation of United Nations Security Council resolution 1701.
Moreover, its forces opened fire on Sunday against members of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), in what the peacekeepers described as a “serious” violation of the resolution.
A UNIFIL statement on Sunday said: “This morning, Israeli forces fired on UNIFIL peacekeepers from a Merkava tank from near a position Israel has established in Lebanese territory.”
“Heavy machine gun rounds hit approximately five meters from the peacekeepers, who were on foot and had to take shelter in the terrain,” it said.
“Peacekeepers asked for the Israeli forces to stop firing through UNIFIL’s liaison channels. They were able to leave safely thirty minutes later, when the Merkava tank withdrew inside the Israeli position. Fortunately, no one was injured,” it added.
“This represents a serious violation of resolution 1701. Yet again, we call on the Israeli military to cease any aggressive behavior and attacks on or near peacekeepers, who are working to support the return to the stability that both Israel and Lebanon say they seek,” stressed the statement.
Commenting on the incident, the Lebanese army said in a statement: “The Israeli enemy insists on violating Lebanese sovereignty, destabilizing Lebanon and obstructing the military’s efforts to deploy in the South.”
It stressed that it was coordinating with “friendly countries to put an end to the enemy’s ongoing violations, which demand immediate action given that they are a dangerous escalation.”
This was not the first time Israel attacks UN peacekeepers in the South. It often claims that the attacks are not deliberate.
Later on Sunday, the Israeli army said it did not mean to deliberately attack UNIFIL, clarifying that it had mistaken two of its members for “suspects”.
It fired warning shots and after investigating, verified that the “suspects” were UN soldiers on patrol in the al-Hamames area, it added in a statement.
Border wall
Meanwhile, Israel continued to construct a border wall in areas it is occupying in southern Lebanon, completely dismissing all warnings and objections from Beirut and UNIFIL.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun asked the foreign minister Saturday to work on filing a complaint against Israel.
A statement released by Aoun’s office said he has asked the foreign minister to include in the complaint statement issued by UNIFIL that is deployed along the border with Israel.
On Friday, UNIFIL said in a statement that the Israeli army erected a wall southwest of the Lebanese village of Yaroun.
UNIFIL said the wall crossed the border line, rendering more than 4,000 square meters (43,000 square feet) of Lebanese territory “inaccessible to the Lebanese people.”
UNIFIL said it has informed the Israeli army of its findings and requested that they remove the wall.
It said that construction of the wall violates the UN Security Council resolution that ended that 14-month Israel-Hezbollah war with a US-brokered ceasefire reached in November last year. UNIFIL added that the wall violates “Lebanon’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
The Israeli military said the wall, whose construction began in 2022, is part of a broader plan for reinforcements along the border.
It said that since the start of the war the Israeli army has been advancing a series of measures, including reinforcing the physical barrier along the northern border.
The Israeli army said it should be emphasized that the wall does not cross the Blue Line, the boundary between Lebanon and Israel drawn up by the UN which UNIFIL monitors and patrols.
The Israel-Hezbollah war started when Hezbollah began firing rockets across the border on Oct. 8, 2023, a day after a deadly Hamas-led incursion into southern Israel sparked the war in Gaza. Israel responded with shelling and airstrikes in Lebanon, and the two sides became locked in an escalating conflict that became a full-blown war in late September 2024.
The construction of the wall is another hurdle in the negotiations Lebanon is seeking to demarcate land and marine borders with Israel.
Abdul Rahman Chehaitli, a retired general who was part of the Lebanese team in past maritime negotiations with Israel, said Tel Aviv is “preempting” any possible new negotiations by consolidating the situation along the border wall.
He told Asharq Al-Awsat that Israel started building the wall in 2022, ignoring Lebanon’s objections. “It is now continuing the construction to consolidate the status quo knowing that the Blue Line was never adopted as the official border and that it could be amended in any potential negotiations, which was what Lebanon had asked for,” he added.
Israel viewed this point as a “victory for it after the 2024 war and that it has the right to impose what it wants through force,” he went on to say.
Should negotiations be held, “we may be confronted with an amended Blue Line, with some points favoring Lebanon and others favoring Israel,” he remarked.
