Beirut, Oct 11 (EFE).- Human Rights Watch (HRW) urged the UN on Friday to investigate the “repeated attacks” against United Nations peacekeeping operations (UNIFIL) in southwestern Lebanon.
This, the rights watchdog claimed, was an apparent violation of the laws of war, especially in the wake of Thursday’s attack that left at least two soldiers wounded.
“UN peacekeepers in south Lebanon have long played a critical civilian protection and humanitarian role,” HRW’s Middle East and North Africa director Lama Fakih said in a statement.
“Any targeting of UN peacekeepers by Israeli forces violates the laws of war and dangerously interferes with UNIFIL’s civilian protection and aid work,” she added.
Thus, the HRW urged the UN to “urgently establish, and UN member countries should support, an international investigation into the hostilities in Lebanon and Israel with a mandate to publicly report on violations.”
“The UN and member countries should ensure that investigators are dispatched immediately to gather information and make findings as to violations of international law by the warring parties and make recommendations for accountability,” the statement said.
On Thursday, UNIFIL reported that at least two of its peacekeeping forces members were wounded in an Israeli attack on a watchtower at its headquarters in Naqoura, in the south of the country.
There have been at least three attacks attributed to Israel against UN troops in the past 24 hours.
The Israeli army, on its part, accused the Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah of operating near UN mission posts in southern Lebanon and acknowledged having fired shots near its base in Naqoura.
Soon after the UNIFIL statement, UN spokesman Farhan Haq told a press conference that UNIFIL had “mandated tasks” of ensuring peace and stability in the region and would continue to remain in their positions.
Haq said there had been previous requests for the relocation of UNIFIL, adding that they would continue to review the security situation.
“While we continue to assess the safety and security of our peacekeeping forces, it’s important that they also fulfill their mandate,” he said, affirming that the UNIFIL is staying in position despite Israel’s petitions to evacuate their bases.
UNIFIL is a peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon that the UN Security Council established in 1978 and under its mandate, they should monitor the cessation of hostilities and help ensure humanitarian access to civilians and the return of displaced persons following the 2006 Israeli-Lebanese war. EFE
ijm/sc