2024-10-12 14:38:00
French President Emmanuel Macron and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni condemned as “unacceptable” Israeli fire against United Nations peacekeepers in southern Lebanon, a position echoed by the Spanish prime minister.
The three countries together have about 2,000 soldiers in the UNIFIL mission, which said Israeli tank fire on Thursday left two of its peacekeepers wounded.
Two others were injured after “explosions” near an observation tower on Friday.
Macron called it “absolutely unacceptable” that UN troops are “deliberately targeted by the Israeli armed forces.” He added that France “will not tolerate” a repeat.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez called for an “end to all violence” against peacekeepers in Lebanon, and his Italian counterpart Meloni said: “It is not acceptable.”
In a subsequent joint statement, the three leaders expressed “outrage” at the wounded peacekeepers and said the “attacks” violated Security Council Resolution 1701, which states that only the UN and the Lebanese army should be present in the southernmost Lebanon.
“These attacks are unjustifiable and must stop immediately”, reads the statement, calling for “an immediate ceasefire”.
The Israeli army said on Friday that its soldiers fired in the direction of a “threat” and hit a UNIFIL position. The day before they had claimed to have fired in the area of the United Nations base, while Hezbollah fighters were operating in the area.
Announcement
Ceasefire is ‘indispensable’
Since late September, Israeli forces have stepped up operations against Iran-backed Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon, while the war against Hezbollah’s ally, Palestinian militants Hamas, continues in the Gaza Strip.
“A few miles from Cyprus there is a war. We have a difficult situation,” Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides said as he opened the summit.
Known as MED9, the group also brought together leaders from Portugal, Greece, Cyprus, Malta, Slovenia and Croatia, along with Jordan’s King, Abdullah II, for the one-day meeting in the city of Paphos.
Christodoulides said MED9 called for an end to hostilities in Gaza and Lebanon and for the resumption of talks.
Macron added that this “ceasefire is indispensable for both Gaza and Lebanon”.
Last weekend the French president angered the Israeli government by suggesting that countries should “stop supplying weapons to fight in Gaza”, specifying that France itself was not supplying any.
Announcement
At the summit, he said that “stopping the export of weapons” used in Gaza and Lebanon was the only way to end the fighting there.
“This is in no way a call to disarm Israel from threats against this country and its people, our friends,” Macron added.
The leaders also discussed how to bring more aid to Gaza, for which Jordan presented a new plan.
“France will contribute to this,” Macron said.
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