The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) had used earth movers to create positions for its tanks and armoured personnel carriers immediately beside a post manned by a platoon of Irish troops in southern Lebanon.
Satellite images produced by Planet Labs, a commercial satellite company, show about 20 IDF military vehicles in position beside protective berms dug from the soil by the Israelis, who settled in for several days, metres from the Irish position.
However, while those images are of poor quality, photographs and video taken at ground level, and from relatively close-up, show IDF tanks at the perimeter wall of United Nations post 6-52. It is manned by the Irish personnel serving with the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil) and its objective has been to observe activity, and gather intelligence, along the volatile Israel-Lebanon border.
The IDF soldiers and their vehicles could only have come closer to the Irish position if they had actually entered the UN post 6-52 compound, which is mainly comprised of temporary cabin-style structures, sources said.
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The IDF has in the past engaged in a practice known was “reconnaissance by fire”, which effectively means soldiers moving in vehicles firing at any perceived threat in their path. Some military sources who spoke to The Irish Times believed the time of maximum risk to the Irish Unifil troops was when the IDF first arrived into their area, creating the risk of “recon by fire”.
The same sources pointed out while Unifil troops were not a target of the IDF, or the militant Lebanese group Hizbullah with whom they are fighting, the Israelis had killed UN personnel in the region before and could be indiscriminate when opening fire.
The area around 6-52 was the scene of intense fighting between the IDF and Hizbullah last week, during which Israel suffered heavy casualties. Some of the fighting took place less than 2km from the Irish outpost before the IDF then moved next to the Irish position.
A number of sources with knowledge of Ireland’s role in the Unifil mission – which has been in place since 1978 – said since the IDF had moved on from the Irish position, it appears early on Tuesday, planning had begun to reach the 30 Irish troops. Those efforts focused on resupplying them, and possibly rotating them with the other personnel from the near 300 Irish soldiers located at Camp Shamrock about 7km away.
A Defence Forces statement on Tuesday evening confirmed that no IDF personnel or vehicles can currently be observed in the vicinity of the two Blue Line positions where there are Irish soldiers, and confirmed that plans to resupply the troops are advancing.
UN post 6-52 is one of 29 observation posts manned by Unifil beside the blue line border between southern Lebanon and northern Israel. Unifil is compromised of 10,000 troops from 50 contributing countries
There was significant concern for the safety of the 30 Irish troops at 6-52 over last weekend and earlier this week in Government, within the Defence Forces, the UN and among the families of the Irish personnel. However, sources pointed out many Defence Forces personnel had faced very tense and dangerous situations in Lebanon over the years.
This included being ambushed, being caught in the crossfire of shelling and also the IDF encroaching into the Irish positions and arriving in the area where the Irish were located.
During the 2006 war in the region, Unifil scaled back to a 2,000-strong presence on the ground. However, sources said any decision to scale back or withdraw from certain positions at the present time – as the IDF continued to build up its forces entering southern Lebanon – would be for the UN, and not Ireland. It would be “unprecedented” for the Irish Government to decide unilaterally to withdraw Irish troops.
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