UNITED NATIONS, UNITED STATES: United Nations peacekeepers in Lebanon have been unable to conduct patrols because of the intensity of Israeli strikes and Hezbollah’s rockets targeting Israel, a UN spokesman said Monday.
With more than 10,000 personnel, the peacekeeping force has been stationed in Lebanon since 1978, with its role strengthened after a 33-day conflict between Hezbollah and Israel in 2006.
“Our UNIFIL Blue Helmets remain in position in the mission’s area of responsibility, while the intensity of fighting is preventing their movements and ability to undertake their mandated tasks,” Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, told a media briefing.
“Given the intensity of the rockets going back and forth, they are not able to do patrolling,” he added.
Even before the dramatic escalation in fighting seen in recent weeks, several Blue Helmets had been wounded in the crossfire between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement.
The peacekeepers mission, under Security Council Resolution 1701, is to “control the area” and help the Lebanese government and armed forces establish control south of the Litani River, which is around 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the border with Israel.
The resolution ended a war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006.
It called for all armed personnel to pull back north of the Litani, except for Lebanese state security forces and United Nations peacekeepers.
While Hezbollah has not had a visible military presence in the border area since then, the group still holds sway over large parts of the south.
Dujarric said the peacekeepers “are able to observe what they can from where they are but they are not doing any road patrols,” adding that some civilian staff “have been moved north” as a precaution.
“We have a contingency plan and we’re looking at the situation hour by hour,” he added.
UN peacekeepers in Lebanon ‘not able’ to patrol: UN spokesman
https://arab.news/gcmq4
UN peacekeepers in Lebanon ‘not able’ to patrol: UN spokesman
- Stephane Dujarric: ‘Given the intensity of the rockets going back and forth, they are not able to do patrolling’
- Dujarric: ‘We have a contingency plan and we’re looking at the situation hour by hour’
Seven killed in drone strike on Sudan hospital: medical source
- Dilling, in the flashpoint state of South Kordofan, is controlled by the Sudanese army but has been under siege by rival paramilitary forces
- Sunday’s strike comes a day after a drone strike on a UN peacekeeping base killed six Bangladeshi troops in the similarly besieged South Kordofan state capital of Kadugli
PORT SUDAN: A drone strike Sunday on an army hospital in the besieged southern Sudan city of Dilling left “seven civilians dead and 12 injured,” a health worker at the facility told AFP.
The victims included patients and their companions, the medic said on condition of anonymity, explaining that the army hospital “serves the residents of the city and its surroundings, in addition to military personnel.”
Dilling, in the flashpoint state of South Kordofan, is controlled by the Sudanese army but has been under siege by rival paramilitary forces.
Since April 2023, the army has been at war with the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), who control swathes of the greater Kordofan region along with their allies, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) faction led by Abdelaziz Al-Hilu.
Sunday’s strike comes a day after a drone strike on a United Nations peacekeeping base killed six Bangladeshi troops in the similarly besieged South Kordofan state capital of Kadugli, some 120 kilometers (75 miles) south of Dilling.
According to the UN, civilians in Dilling are suffering famine conditions, but a lack of access to data has prevented an official declaration.
Across the country, the war has killed tens of thousands of people, displaced 12 million and created the world’s largest hunger and displacement crises.
