Pakistan urges probe as AFP reports Israeli fire killed UN peacekeeper in Lebanon

UNITED NATIONS: Pakistan has termed the killing of three Indonesian peacekeepers serving with the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) as “tragic and deeply disturbing,” calling for a thorough investigation during an emergency session of the United Nations Security Council on the situation in southern Lebanon.

Addressing the 15-member Council, Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Asim Iftikhar Ahmad, said the incidents strike at the heart of international law.

“These are not isolated incidents,” he said, noting that the Council met at the request of France amid intensified fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, during which UNIFIL has come under increasing attacks.

The Council, he said, must not allow such violence against peacekeepers to become normalized.

Pakistani envoy said Israel’s continued military actions in southern Lebanon have resulted in the death of more than 600 civilians, the displacement of more than a million people, and the widespread destruction of civilian infrastructure

Pakistan, he said, stands firmly with the government and people of Lebanon.

The killing of Indonesian peacekeepers on March 29 and 30 is part of a disturbing pattern of attacks on UNIFIL, the Pakistani envoy said, noting that the Mission has been subjected to persistent aggressive behaviour and restrictions on freedom of operation.

As one of the largest troop-contributing countries, “we share this profound sense of loss” and stand in full solidarity with the Government and people of Indonesia, and the families of the fallen.

“UN personnel are impartial agents of peace,” Ambassador Asim Ahmad said. “Targeting them is a grave violation that undermines international humanitarian law.”

Accountability is essential, he said, and called for prompt, thorough, and impartial investigation to establish the facts.

UN security source tells AFP Israeli fire killed peacekeeper

A UN security source told AFP on Tuesday that Israeli fire had killed an Indonesian peacekeeper at the weekend, after the UN force said it was investigating the incident.

The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon had said that the peacekeeper was killed on Sunday evening when a projectile of unknown origin “exploded in a UNIFIL position near Adchit al Qusayr”.

The source told AFP on condition of anonymity that investigations had shown the fire came from an Israeli tank, adding that “debris from a tank round has been recovered” at the site.

On Monday, UNIFIL said another “explosion of unknown origin” destroyed a peacekeeping vehicle, killing two more Indonesian troops, and that an investigation had also been launched into that incident.

The UN security source said the origin of that explosion may have been a mine.

Israel’s military denied responsibility for Monday’s incident.

UNIFIL numbers some 8,200 peacekeepers and patrols Lebanon’s de facto southern border area, where Israel and Hezbollah have been fighting since war erupted this month as Israeli troops pursue a ground offensive.

France’s Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot on Monday accused Israel of unspecified “security breaches and intimidation” experienced by the French UNIFIL contingent in Naqura, where the mission’s headquarters are located.

Barrot said that anger had “been conveyed with the utmost firmness to the Israeli ambassador in Paris”.