4 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

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