[News] Leaked report finds Israel targeting UN troops in Lebanon, injured several with white phosphorus

[Anti-Imperialist News]

 Leaked report finds Israel targeting UN troops in Lebanon, injured several
with white phosphorus

The confidential report says Israel attacked UNIFIL personnel on the
Lebanon-Israeli border over a dozen times

News Desk <https://thecradle.co/authors/news-desk-9>

OCT 22, 2024 -
https://thecradle.co/articles/leaked-report-finds-israel-targeting-un-troops-in-lebanon-injured-several-with-white-phosphorus
(Photo credit: AP)

Israel’s military has attacked UNIFIL troops deployed on the Lebanon-Israel
border a dozen times, including possibly with white phosphorous, the *Financial
Times* (FT) reported
<https://www.ft.com/content/151eb482-6415-48a8-bf3f-baed00018c4e> on 22
October.

According to a confidential report prepared by a country contributing
troops to the UN mission, Israeli forces forcibly entered a clearly marked
UN base and are suspected of using the incendiary chemical white
phosphorus, injuring 15 UN soldiers.

Israeli forces began targeting UN troops shortly after launching ground
operations across the border into Lebanon on 1 October.

UNIFIL has called the attacks “deliberate” and a “flagrant violation of
international law.”

UN troops, which come from 50 separate countries, have rejected Israeli
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s demand that they evacuate their border
posts to clear the way for current Israeli military operations in southern
Lebanon.

Israel hopes to establish a so-called security zone and push Hezbollah
fighters some 30km away from the border to positions behind the Litani
River.

The confidential report viewed by FT includes photographs documenting the
extent of the damage done to bunkers that shelter UN troops, perimeter
walls, and observation towers at several bases.

On Sunday, an Israeli bulldozer deliberately demolished an observation
tower and perimeter fence of a UN position in Marwahin.

On October 10, two UN troops were injured when an Israeli Merkava tank
opened fire and struck an observation tower at the UNIFIL headquarters in
Naqoura on the Lebanese coast.

On the same day, Israeli forces fired at a UN bunker sheltering Italian
troops in Labbouneh.

The report says the Israeli military first surveilled the area with drones
and destroyed the bunker’s cameras before attacking.

Israeli forces also fired several munitions which landed near a base and
emitted ‘smoke of suspected white phosphorus’ into it.

The FT notes that Israel has used white phosphorus in Lebanon throughout
the past year. Its use is unlawful in populated areas under international
law, but it is frequently used as a military tool to obscure or as a weapon
to smoke out opposing forces.

UN troops were deployed to the Lebanon-Israel border following Israel’s
first invasion of Lebanon in 1978. Israel also invaded its northern
neighbor in 1982 and 2006.

Israeli troops occupied large areas of southern Lebanon between 1982 and
2000 before armed resistance by Hezbollah forced them to withdraw.
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