LEBANON: The United Nations peacekeeping force in Lebanon has categorically said that it would not leave positions in the south despite what it said was an Israeli army request to “relocate.”
In a statement, the UN Interim Force in Lebanon said that on September 30, the Israeli military notified UNIFIL of their intention to undertake limited ground incursions into Lebanon. They also asked UNIFIL to relocate from some of their positions, the statement added. Peacekeepers remain in all positions and the UN flag continues to fly, it maintained.
It said that they are regularly adjusting their activities, and they have contingency plans ready to activate if absolutely essential, it further said.
Israel has intensified its offensive against Lebanese group Hezbollah since September 23, killing over 1,110 people and forcing hundreds of thousands to flee their houses in a country already mired in economic problems.
UNIFIL said that they continue to urge Lebanon and Israel to recommit to UNSC Resolution 1701 — in actions, not just word — as the only viable solution to bring back stability in the entire region.
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UNSC Resolution 1701, which ended the 2006 war between Hezbollah and Israel, stipulated that only the Lebanese military and UN peacekeepers should be deployed in south Lebanon.
Meanwhile, Israel claimed that it had targeted the intelligence headquarters of Hezbollah in Beirut, Lebanon overnight and was evaluating the damage on Friday following a series of attacks on senior figures in the group that Iran’s Supreme Leader rejected as counterproductive.
The air strike on Beirut, part of a wider attack that has driven over 1.2 million Lebanese from their houses, was reported to have targeted the potential successor to the chief of Tehran-backed Hezbollah, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, killed by Israeli strike a week ago.
