Four UN peacekeepers injured by rocket fire in Lebanon

The UN peacekeeping agency in southern Lebanon says four of its troops were injured when a rocket hit a base, one of three separate incidents in which its troops and bases came under fire on Tuesday.

Four Ghanaian peacekeepers were injured, with three requiring hospital treatment, after a rocket struck a base in the east of the village of Ramyah near the border with Israel, the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil) said. The severity of their injuries is unknown.

Unifil also said a base in Shama was damaged by rocket fire with “non-state actors within Lebanon” most likely responsible. There were no injuries.

The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) which is staging a ground invasion of southern Lebanon against Hezbollah, blamed the Lebanese armed group for both incidences of rocket fire. Hezbollah has not commented.

Also on Tuesday, a Unifil patrol was fired at while the group passed through a road northeast of the village of Khirbat Silim, with no injuries reported.

In a statement posted to social media, Unifil condemned the attacks on its people and infrastructure.

“The pattern of regular attacks – direct or indirect – against peacekeepers must end immediately,” the statement said.

“Any attack against the peacekeepers is a flagrant violation of international laws and resolution 1701, which forms the basis of Unifil’s current mandate.”

Under UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah, the UN was meant to create an area in the south free of armed forces other than those of the Lebanese army.

However Israel accuses Unifil of having turned a blind eye to the growth of Hezbollah, which now outpowers the official Lebanese army. Hezbollah is proscribed as a terrorist organisation by Israel, the UK, US and other countries.

Tensions between Israel and the UN over its peacekeeping operations in southern Lebanon have escalated in recent months, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu calling for the forces to pull out of “combat areas”.

A Unifil spokesman in Geneva said UN peacekeepers were seeing increased levels of violence, with “huge, shocking” destruction across the blue line – the UN-recognised boundary that separates Israel and Lebanon.

Israel’s stated goal in launching a ground invasion and escalating air strikes on Hezbollah targets is to allow the return of about 60,000 residents who have been displaced from communities in the country’s north because of Hezbollah’s rocket fire.

The Lebanese group launched its campaign the day after the Hamas attacks on southern Israel last year, saying it was acting in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.

In the past year, Israel’s attacks in Lebanon have killed more than 3,840 people and wounded nearly 15,000 others, according to the Lebanese health ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.

On Tuesday the Lebanese army said three of its soldiers had been killed in an Israeli strike on an army centre in the town of Safarand. Seventeen other people including nearby civilians were wounded in the strike, the health ministry said.

Israeli attacks have displaced more than one million people, putting more pressure on a country that was already struggling to cope after years of a severe economic crisis.

Hezbollah’s own attacks have killed at least 31 soldiers and 45 civilians inside Israel, Israeli authorities say. Another 45 Israeli soldiers have been killed fighting in southern Lebanon.

The Israeli military has destroyed large parts of Hezbollah’s infrastructure and killed many of its leaders, but the group continues to carry out daily attacks, although not with the same intensity.

Efforts for a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah have intensified, with Lebanon’s government due to respond to a draft deal presented by the US.