“The shelling of the UN base, which injured two peacekeepers, is a violation of international humanitarian law,” UN chief Antonio Guterres said at a press conference at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit in Vientiane, the capital of the Lao Democratic Republic.
The UN chief said UN peacekeepers must provide security to all parties to the war and what happened was reprehensible.
He also expressed deep concern over the escalating violence and conflict in Lebanon.
Antonio Guterres said that what we are seeing in Lebanon is a very large (Israeli) campaign, which includes airstrikes, deadly bombings and bombings by Hezbollah. A large number of civilians are being killed in these.
According to reports, over 2000 people have been killed and over a million displaced in Lebanon.
Antonio Guterres said, “We are witnessing a tragedy of enormous proportions in Lebanon and we will leave no stone unturned to prevent an all-out war in Lebanon.”
Plea for peace
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said that the situation of ordinary people in Lebanon, Gaza, Israel and Syria is getting worse day by day. He called on those in power to stop the death, destruction and aggressive activities.
The United Nations Interim Force Mission in Lebanon (UNIFIL) said on Friday that two peacekeepers were wounded in two blasts near its observation tower.
Earlier on Thursday, two UN peacekeepers were wounded when an Israeli tank fired at an observation tower at UNIFIL’s headquarters in Naqora.
The attack was carried out directly on the observation tower where the two peacekeepers had fallen.
“These events once again pose a serious risk to UN peacekeepers who are deployed to operate in Lebanon at the request of the UN under Security Council Resolution 1701 (2006),” Volker Turk said.
Beirut became the target
Ravina Shamdasani, spokeswoman for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights OHCHR, described in Geneva how Israeli airstrikes are increasing in the densely populated city of Beirut, where 2,100 people have been killed in the past year, according to Lebanese officials.
Meanwhile, Hezbollah and other armed groups also fired rockets into Israel, killing one person in northern Israel, the UN human rights spokesman said, the first death on Israeli territory since hostilities between Israel and Lebanon intensified last month.
According to Lebanese officials, intense Israeli airstrikes have not spared health care centers and emergency workers. As of October 5, 96 primary health centers had to be closed as a result of the Israeli attack.
“We have received reports of multiple airstrikes targeting medical facilities and health emergency workers, as well as fire fighters,” said Ravini Shamdasani, UN human rights spokeswoman.
The World Health Organization (WHO) reported that 49 health workers had died in nine confirmed Israeli attacks since September 30.
UN human rights spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani said on Thursday that Israeli forces had attacked UNIFIL monitoring posts and said that under international law, countries have a responsibility not to attack such targets, including the UN.