UN peacekeepers in Lebanon saw Israeli troops breach the Blue Line that separates Israel from Lebanon on Sunday morning and force their way into a UN base at the southern Lebanese border village of Ramyah, in what the UN Interim Force In Lebanon (UNIFIL) described as a grave violation of international humanitarian law.
“Early this morning, peacekeepers at a UN position in Ramyah observed three platoons of IDF soldiers crossing the Blue Line into Lebanon,” the statement read.
While the peacekeepers were in shelters, two Israeli Merkava tanks destroyed the main gate to the UN position and entered there, the mission said, adding that the Israeli soldiers demanded that the base turn the lights off.
“Breaching and entering a UN position is a \u2026 flagrant violation of international law and Security Council resolution 1701 (2006). Any deliberate attack on peacekeepers is a grave violation of international humanitarian law and resolution 1701,” UNIFIL said.
Two hours later, the same UN base reported the firing of several rounds some 300 feet north of the position, which caused smoke to enter the camp and cause skin irritation and gastrointestinal symptoms in UN troops. They are receiving treatment, the mission said.
In a separate incident, Israeli soldiers denied passage to UNIFIL vehicles near the border Lebanese village of Meiss ej Jebel. The critical movement could not be completed, the mission said.
UNIFIL stressed that its mandate provided for freedom of movement in the area of operations and demanded that the Israeli military and other actors fulfill their obligations to ensure the safety and security of UN personnel and property and respect the inviolability of UN premises<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
UN peacekeepers in Lebanon saw Israeli troops breach the Blue Line that separates Israel from Lebanon on Sunday morning and force their way into a UN base at the southern Lebanese border village of Ramyah, in what the UN Interim Force In Lebanon (UNIFIL) described as a grave violation of international humanitarian law.“Early this morning, …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":212467,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[263],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-212477","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arab-telegraph-news"],"yoast_head":"\n