Unifil: another blue helmet injured. Much damage suffered to our stations
Another peacekeeper was injured in southern Lebanon, the fifth in two days. Unifil reports this. The clashes between Israel and Hezbollah in southern Lebanon have inflicted “a lot of damage” to the positions, explains Blue Helmet spokesperson Andrea Tenenti. “Just last night, on the position of the Ghanaian peacekeeping forces, just outside, the explosion was so strong that it destroyed some of the containers inside very badly.” Working is “very difficult because there is a lot of damage, even inside the bases”, he added.
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Mo: Battisti, ‘Unifil hit, I don’t think it was an action desired at high levels of Israeli leadership’
“The Unifil contingents that suffered the attacks have been deployed in this buffer zone, a security zone of interposition in peacetime, since before the start of the Israeli offensives in Lebanon to neutralize Hezbollah’s positions, they are therefore deployed between the two contenders, so if Israel has to proceed it risks hitting some of these Blue Helmet positions.” Thus to Adnkronos General Giorgio Battisti, first commander of the Italian contingent of the ISAF mission in Afghanistan and member of the Atlantic Committee. “Yesterday, the Unifl spokesperson declared that Israel had asked Unifil to abandon these positions, to allow Israeli troops to proceed towards the Hezbollah positions – explains Battisti – but as they did not withdraw, some stray shots hit the UN positions. It could also be that deliberately, but it is not possible to confirm, some shots were aimed at the cameras and surveillance systems to neutralize the UN’s observation capabilities.” “I absolutely do not believe that it was an action desired at the high levels of the Israeli leadership – concludes Battisti – this was some action carried out without any provision on a tactical level also because the Israeli government had told our minister several times in recent days of Foreign Affairs and to the Minister of Defense that in any case Unifil had nothing to fear from this Israeli offensive. Some Hezbollah positions have been built not very far from the Unifil base so it could happen that they are hit”.