Tag: southern Lebanon

  • Ghanaians among UN peacekeepers injured in Southern Lebanon attacks

    Ghanaians among UN peacekeepers injured in Southern Lebanon attacks

    The UN peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon has reported that four of its soldiers were injured when a rocket hit a base, marking one of three separate incidents in which its troops and bases came under fire on Tuesday.

    The UN Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil) stated that four Ghanaian peacekeepers were hurt, with three needing hospital treatment, after a rocket struck a base east of the village of Ramyah, near the Israeli border. The extent of their injuries remains unclear.

    Unifil also confirmed that a base in Shama was damaged by rocket fire, with “non-state actors within Lebanon” likely responsible. Fortunately, there were no injuries.

    The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), currently conducting a ground invasion of southern Lebanon against Hezbollah, attributed both rocket attacks to the Lebanese armed group, although Hezbollah has not issued a statement.

    Additionally, a Unifil patrol came under gunfire while passing through a road northeast of Khirbat Silim, but there were no injuries.

    Unifil condemned the attacks on its personnel and infrastructure in a statement shared on social media.

    “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.”

    According to UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which brought an end to the 2006 conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, the UN was tasked with establishing a demilitarized zone in southern Lebanon, excluding all armed forces except for the Lebanese army.

    However, Israel has criticized Unifil for allegedly overlooking the expansion of Hezbollah, which has since become more powerful than the official Lebanese army. Hezbollah is classified as a terrorist organization by Israel, the UK, the US, and several other nations.

    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.

    Israel’s objective behind the ground invasion and the intensification of airstrikes on Hezbollah targets is to facilitate the return of approximately 60,000 displaced residents from northern communities who fled due to Hezbollah’s rocket attacks.

    Hezbollah initiated its offensive the day after the Hamas-led attacks in southern Israel last year, asserting it was acting in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.

    Over the past year, Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon have resulted in the deaths of over 3,840 people and injured nearly 15,000, according to the Lebanese health ministry, which does not differentiate between civilians and combatants.

    On Tuesday, the Lebanese army confirmed that three soldiers had died in an Israeli airstrike on a military base in Safarand, with 17 others, including civilians, wounded in the attack.

    The ongoing Israeli strikes have forced over one million people to flee, exacerbating the hardships of a country already grappling with a prolonged economic crisis.

    According to Israeli authorities, Hezbollah’s attacks have killed at least 31 soldiers and 45 civilians in Israel. Additionally, 45 Israeli soldiers have died in combat in southern Lebanon.

    While Israel has severely damaged Hezbollah’s infrastructure and killed numerous leaders, the group continues to launch daily assaults, though with reduced intensity.

    Efforts to broker a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah are gaining momentum, with Lebanon’s government set to respond to a ceasefire proposal drafted by the US

  • Jerusalem’s position is rapidly deteriorating

    Jerusalem’s position is rapidly deteriorating

    Early Friday, Israel claimed to have attacked Hamas-related targets in southern Lebanon and Gaza. This came after the Israeli military said Palestinian terrorists were responsible for the firing of hundreds of missiles into Israeli territory from southern Lebanon.

    The number of rockets fired from Lebanon was at its highest level since 2006, yet neither rocket attack in Gaza, Israel, or Lebanon was associated with any recorded fatalities.

    The strikes only caused minor damage to buildings, automobiles, and agricultural locations on both sides.

    The overnight exchange of fire came after Israeli police conducted violent raids of Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa mosque twice in less than 24-hours starting on Wednesday.

    The situation on the ground however remains tense. On Friday, a shooting in the occupied West Bank targeting a group of settlers as they drove killed two sisters and critically injured their mother in what Israeli police described it as a “terror attack.” Hamas and Islamic Jihad praised what they called a “heroic operation.” This year’s violence takes place at sensitive time for both Israelis and Palestinians. Muslims have been marking the holy month of Ramadan, while Jews are celebrating Passover.

    The violence also took place as Israel grapples with the aftermath of mass protests over a controversial judicial overhaul, which only slightly waned last week after a pause was announced, leaving the country deeply divided.

    Here’s how the situation developed, and why this year’s violence is particularly a cause for concern:

    The al-Aqsa mosque compound, known to Muslims as Al Haram Al Sharif, is the third holiest place in Islam, and is the holiest site in Judaism, known to Jews as Temple Mount.

    Al-Aqsa mosque and its surrounding complex are located in the Old City, in the eastern sector of Jerusalem, which most of the international community considers to be under Israeli occupation. Israel captured East Jerusalem in 1967, and considers both East and West Jerusalem part of its “eternal capital.”

    A “status quo” agreement between Israel and Jordan governs the Muslim and Christian holy sites there. But the specifics of the agreement are constantly changing, says Mairav Zonszein, a senior analyst on Israel-Palestine at the International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based think tank.

    Israeli police raids of al-Aqsa mosque are considered by Muslims as a major provocation, and have in the past led to violent escalation. The 2021 war between Hamas and Israel was partly triggered by an Israeli raid on al-Aqsa mosque.

    Under the status quo agreement, Jordan is the custodian of the compound. But Israeli police control East Jerusalem, and Zonszein said Israeli raids of the compound have increased since the Second Palestinian Intifada, or uprising, in the year 2000.

    Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur on Occupied Palestinian Territories, told CNN that Israeli police have been raiding the area for many years, particularly during Ramadan, with varying frequency and intensity.

    What’s different this time, she says, is that it occurs during a climate of record levels of violence between Israelis and Palestinians, and inflammatory rhetoric towards Palestinians by some of the Israeli government’s far-right ministers.

    ‘We are ready’: The IDF prepares reserve forces following barrage of rocket attacks from Gaza and Lebanon

    02:19 – Source: CNN

    Calls for Muslims to stay in the mosque overnight increased after Jewish extremist groups had encouraged Jews to go up to the compound and sacrifice goats as part of ancient Passover ritual that is no longer practiced today.

    Israeli police said it stormed al-Aqsa Wednesday after “hundreds of rioters and mosque desecrators (had) barricaded themselves” inside, adding that once they entered, stones and fireworks were thrown at them by “agitators.”

    “Their intention was to create a violent riot particularly against the Temple Mount visitors in the morning hours,” a police spokesperson said on Thursday, referring to non-Muslims, who are allowed to visit but not perform prayers under the status-quo agreement. Some members of the current Israeli government have campaigned to allow Jewish prayer there.

    Videos shared on social media form early on Wednesday showed Israeli police beating screaming Muslim worshipers with batons. Eyewitnesses told CNN the police also broke windows, smashed doors and fired stun grenades and rubber bullets.

    The raid caused outrage in Arab states and was criticized by Israel’s allies, including the United States.

    While Israel’s jurisdiction over East Jerusalem isn’t recognized by international law, and Israeli entry into the al-Aqsa mosque is forbidden by the status quo agreement, it has repeatedly sought to prohibit overnight Muslim prayers there.

    There is no explicit agreement restricting overnight worship at the mosque, but an Israeli police spokesperson Dean Elsdunne on Saturday told CNN that “Muslims are not allowed to be in the compound during night hours.”

    Zonszein said Israel claims there are “understandings (with the Jordanian custodians) on not staying overnight,” adding that they haven’t been made public and that Palestinians are unlikely to have agreed to them.

    It is customary for Muslims to perform overnight prayers at mosques during Ramadan, in a ritual known as “itikaf.”

    “Over the years it (itikaf) became yet another tool in conflict,” Zonszein said. “Israel started to restrict it when it found it to be a way for Palestinians to provoke friction with Jewish Israelis.”

    While it is customary to mainly do so in the last ten days of Ramadan, itikaf can be practiced at any time of the year and is not restricted to the holy month, said Sheikh Ikrima Sabri, Imam of al-Aqsa mosque and former Grand Mufti of Jerusalem.

    Israeli media has reported police will prohibit non-Muslims to access the compound during the last 10 days of Ramadan, in line with previous years.

    Following Wednesday’s violence, the Waqf – the Jordan-appointed body that manages Jerusalem’s Muslim holy sites – said that al-Aqsa mosque “did not and will not close its doors” to those performing itikaf prayers throughout Ramadan, at night or during the day. Sabri said that prayer timings are solely the prerogative of the Muslims authorities at the site.

    The UN’s Francesca Albanese said that as per to the status quo agreement, the Jerusalem Islamic Waqf, under Jordanian custodianship “is the only recognized authority responsible for managing the site.”

    Israel’s strikes on both Gaza and Lebanon are thus far seen to be relatively restrained compared to its response in 2021 and previous years, which saw much more aggressive rocket salvos targeting Jerusalem.

    While security threats have traditionally unified Israelis and masked domestic divisions, some say too great an escalation could trigger the opposite effect for the Israeli government.

    “The public is always supportive when these things begin, there is always a rallying around the flag phenomenon,” said Chuck Freilich, a former deputy national security advisor in Israel and senior fellow at Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) in Israel, adding that while limited tension may divert attention away from the controversy over the judicial overhaul, any further escalation risks damaging Netanyahu’s image, especially as it is taking place over the Passover holidays.

    Netanyahu’s response comes not only amid domestic upheaval, but also amid strained relations with the United States and Gulf allies, he said, adding that Netanyahu has generally been known to be cautious in his use of military force.

    “The hope is that (the government) can de-escalate it, but I am not sure they will succeed,” he said, adding that it may be in the interest of Hamas and Lebanon’s Hezbollah — both backed by Israel’s longtime foe Iran — to “take advantage of Israel’s disarray.”

    “There is a potential for this to escalate further at a time when Israel is deeply divided domestically,” he said.