BEIRUT: Lebanon will file a complaint to the United Nations Security Council alleging that Israel is building walls in south Lebanon, an accusation Israel has denied, the Lebanese presidency said Saturday.
The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) said on Friday that the Israeli army had built walls in south Lebanon near the UN-demarcated Blue Line, the de facto border.
When asked by AFP about the accusation, the Israeli military said “the wall does not cross the Blue Line.”
President Joseph Aoun’s office said he had instructed officials “to file an urgent complaint to the United Nations Security Council against Israel for constructing a concrete wall on Lebanon’s southern border exceeding the Blue Line.”
He requested that the complaint “be accompanied by reports issued by the United Nations refuting the Israeli denial of the wall’s construction.”
According to UNIFIL, last month peacekeepers surveyed a concrete T-wall erected by the Israeli army southwest of Yaroun and found that it “crossed the Blue Line, rendering more than 4,000 square meters of Lebanese territory inaccessible to the Lebanese people.”
A survey this month of additional construction showed “a section of wall southeast of Yaroun also crossed the Blue Line,” the UNIFIL statement added, calling it a violation of Lebanon’s sovereignty.
The force said it had informed the Israeli army of the October findings and requested it move the wall.
A ceasefire in November last year sought to end more than a year of hostilities including two months of all-out war between Israel and Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.
The Israeli military said the wall was part of a broader Israeli military plan “whose construction began in 2022.”
“Since the start of the war, and as part of lessons learnt from it, the (Israeli military) has been advancing a series of measures, including reinforcing the physical barrier along the northern border,” it added.
Under the truce, Israel was to withdraw its forces from south Lebanon, but it has kept them at five areas it deems strategic.
It has also kept up regular strikes on Lebanon, mainly saying it is targeting Hezbollah sites and operatives.
Lebanon to complain to UN over wall construction denied by Israel
https://arab.news/cjwff
Lebanon to complain to UN over wall construction denied by Israel
- Aoun’s office said he had instructed officials “to file an urgent complaint to the UN Security Council against Israel”
- He requested that the complaint “be accompanied by reports issued by the United Nations refuting the Israeli denial of the wall’s construction“
US lawmakers press Israel to probe strike on reporters in Lebanon
- “The IDF has made no effort, none, to seriously investigate this incident,” Welch said
- Collins called for Washington to publicly acknowledge the attack in which an American citizen was injured
WASHINGTON: Several Democratic lawmakers called Thursday for the Israeli and US governments to fully investigate a deadly 2023 attack by the Israeli military on journalists in southern Lebanon.
The October 13, 2023 airstrike killed Reuters videographer Issam Abdallah and wounded six other reporters, including two from AFP — video journalist Dylan Collins and photographer Christina Assi, who lost her leg.
“We expect the Israeli government to conduct an investigation that meets the international standards and to hold accountable those people who did this,” Senator Peter Welch told a news conference, with Collins by his side.
The lawmaker from Collins’s home state of Vermont said he had been pushing for answers for two years, first from the administration of Democratic president Joe Biden and now from the Republican White House of Donald Trump.
The Israeli government has “stonewalled at every single turn,” Welch added.
“With the Israeli government, we have been extremely patient, and we have done everything we reasonably can to obtain answers and accountability,” he said.
“The IDF has made no effort, none, to seriously investigate this incident,” Welch said, referring to the Israeli military, adding that it has told his office its investigation into the incident is closed.
Collins called for Washington to publicly acknowledge the attack in which an American citizen was injured.
“But I’d also like them to put pressure on their greatest ally in the Middle East, the Israeli government, to bring the perpetrators to account,” he said, echoing the lawmakers who called the attack a “war crime.”
“We’re not letting it go,” Vermont congresswoman Becca Balint said. “It doesn’t matter how long they stonewall us.”
AFP conducted an independent investigation which concluded that two Israeli 120mm tank shells were fired from the Jordeikh area in Israel.
The findings were corroborated by other international probes, including investigations conducted by Reuters, the Committee to Protect Journalists, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and Reporters Without Borders.
Unlike Welch’s assertion Thursday that the Israeli probe was over, the IDF told AFP in October that “findings regarding the event have not yet been concluded.”
