The post where about 30 Irish Defence Forces personnel are stranded in southern Lebanon, amid further shelling on Sunday night, is in the most precarious position of the 29 United Nations (UN) posts in the area, the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil) has said.
It was also possible that, if the security situation continued to deteriorate due to exchanges of fire between the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and Hizbullah, Unifil may have to scale back and stage withdrawals, as it did in 2006 due to the war then.
The UN mission – which is comprised of 10,000 troops from 50 countries, including 300 from Ireland – has also clarified that it has not received any “threats” from Israel about the posts, which are all within 5km of the blue line border between southern Lebanon and northern Israel.
At the weekend, President Michael D Higgins, in his capacity as supreme commander of the Defence Forces, said threats had been made by Israel to the Unifil peacekeeping force, which includes Irish soldiers.
In a statement, just before the first anniversary of the Hamas attacks on Israel, Mr Higgins said it was “outrageous that the Israel Defense Forces have threatened this peacekeeping force and sought to have them evacuate the villages they are defending”.
However, Andrea Tenenti, Unifil’s spokesman, on Monday said while the IDF had told the UN to withdraw their personnel from the posts close to the blue line, no threats had been made by the Israelis.
“At the moment, they have asked us to move from certain positions,” he told RTÉ's Morning Ireland. “We have not received threats. And, again, also reminding them of their obligation to protect our bases and installations but, so far, we have not received threats.”
The Israeli embassy in Dublin at the weekend strongly criticised the President’s intervention, saying the claim the IDF had threatened Unifil forces was “unfounded and inflammatory”. It added the IDF “made a request through different channels to have some Unifil troops move from areas of military activity for their own protection and safety”.
Mr Tenenti on Monday also said IDF personnel had taken up a position “a few hundred metres” from position 6-52, where the 30 Irish troops are hunkered down. That position is southeast of Marun ar Ras, inside Lebanese territory, and where the IDF have created a firing position as part of its clashes with Hizbullah.
Concerns have increased in recent days that as exchanges of fire take place in the area, position 6-52 could be struck. However, Irish personnel have faced similar risks in the 1980s and in 2006.
The Defence Forces has said all of its personnel in Lebanon were “well and accounted for”, adding “the Irish troops remain steadfast in their determination and resilience to fulfil the mission”.
Mr Tenenti said there had been “intense shelling” on Sunday night between the IDF and Hizbullah in the area where the Irish post was located. The UN had been trying to deal with the situation in New York via communications with the Israeli permanent mission to the UN.
This was imperative as having exchanges of fire close to UN posts “comprises the safety of our peacekeepers” and puts pressure on efforts to deliver supplies to the UN peacekeepers.
“They have supplies for a couple of weeks but we have organised a convoy to go to the area,” he said. “The most critical one is the position 6-52.” Their “operational activities have been very, very limited” meaning only “logistical movements”, to resupply the personnel, were possible.
The IDF had informed the UN of “sporadic” or “limited” incursions into the area but Unifil, in agreement with participating countries, had decided to remain on.
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However, tensions had been increasing, with shelling on Sunday night, though it was “a bit calmer” early on Monday. If the situation continued to deteriorate, Mr Tenenti, said the UN may have to reconsider Unifil’s position.
“If the situation arrives to a point where it would be impossible for the mission to operate ... the security council would need to decide how to move forward, as happened in 2006,” he said.
At that time 18 years ago, amid Hizbullah and IDF exchanges of fire leading to a war, Unifil was scaled back to just 2,000 personnel, but not before IDF bombing claimed the lives of UN personnel.
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