The Israeli army raided the facilities of the United Nations peacekeeping forces in the south of Lebanon and destroyed the entrances of that facility with tanks.
In the announcement of the UN Interim Peacekeeping Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), it is stated that in the early hours of the morning, the UN forces in the city of Ramya observed that three groups of Israeli soldiers entered Lebanon across the Blue Line.
It is added that two Merkava tanks of the Israeli army entered the facility, destroying its main entrance, and that the Israeli soldiers asked the UNIFIL forces to turn off the lights in the area, and they left the area 45 minutes later.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on the United Nations earlier on Sunday to withdraw its peacekeeping mission from southern Lebanon during a ground incursion into the area.
“It is time to withdraw UNIFIL from Hezbollah strongholds and from the area of combat operations,” Netanyahu said in a Hebrew-language message to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
Two peacekeepers were injured in an Israeli attack on a UN observation post in southern Lebanon on Thursday. An artillery shell also hit UNIFIL’s main command center in the border town of Naqoura the next day.
Netanyahu claimed that Israel “regrets” the wounding of UN peacekeepers.
UNIFIL was established in March 1978 to confirm Israel’s withdrawal from Lebanon and assist the Lebanese government in restoring authority in the area. Their mandate has been expanded over the years, especially after Israel’s 2006 war, to monitor ceasefires and facilitate humanitarian aid.
Since September 23, Israel has launched massive airstrikes across Lebanon against what it says are Hezbollah targets, killing more than 1,400 people and injuring more than 4,000.
The air campaign represents an escalation in the year-long cross-border war between Israel and Hezbollah since the start of a brutal Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip that has killed some 42,200 people, mostly women and children, since a Hamas attack last year.
Despite international warnings that the Middle East region is on the brink of regional war amid Israel’s relentless attacks on Gaza and Lebanon, Israel widened the conflict by launching a ground invasion of southern Lebanon on October 1.
