Israeli invasion forces have positioned themselves immediately outside base but Lebanese militia says it will not engage them, to prevent harm to Irish garrison
Israeli Merkava tanks have ‘swarmed’ the perimeter of the UN outpost, outside the Lebanese village of Maroun El-Ras, held by Irish peacekeeping troops from the Unifil (UN Interim Force in Lebanon) garrison positioned there to monitor breaches of UN resolutions and human rights.
Irish president Michael D Higgins has condemned Israel’s ‘threat’ to the Unifil troops and deputy prime minister Micheál Martin has issued a statement that Israel’s military action:
endangers and compromises the safety and security of Irish troops.
Lebanese militia group Hezbollah has released a statement confirming that they are aware of the close proximity of UN peacekeepers to Israeli forces and saying that will not engage in order to protect the troops and their outpost.
However, the troops have been ordered to a ‘level three’ position, meaning that they must ‘shelter in place’ and remain in bunkers as far as possible, while still carrying out their monitoring duties.
At the weekend, Israel demanded that the Irish garrison withdraw from the base – a demand that the soldiers’ commanders and Unifil have rejected. Israel’s first attempt to invade was repulsed with heavy IDF casualties, but its air forces continue to drop large bombs on civilian areas and have killed at least two thousand Lebanese civilians since it began its war on Lebanon in mid-September with an indiscriminate terrorist attack that detonated thousands of handheld pagers and radios,
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Firther shithousery from the ibf.
They’re not prepared to go into (larger) built-up areas, knowing that hizbollah are better armed, better equipped, and better trained than hamas.
And the israelis want some form of protection from hb rockets while in the open, so they park up right on top of the UNIFIL station.
In essence, more human shields.
And last I read, something approaching 80% of israelis support israels actions in Lebanon.
So for me, israel can fucking burn.
It will!
It is a pity that the UNIFIL forces cannot engage while under threat from Israel forces. Many a UNIFIL soldier must be disgusted to be used as human shields by Irael´s army.