The United Nations said on Sunday Israeli tanks had burst through the gates of a base of its peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon, the latest accusation of Israeli violations and attacks that have been denounced by Israel's own allies.
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on the United Nations to evacuate the troops of the UNIFIL peacekeeping force from combat areas in Lebanon. Hours later, the force reported what it described as additional Israeli violations, including two Israeli Merkava tanks destroying the main gate of a base and forcibly entering before dawn that morning.
Soon after the tanks left, shells exploded 100 metres away, releasing smoke which blew across the base and sickened U.N. personnel, causing 15 to require treatment despite wearing gas masks, it said. It did not say who fired the shells or what sort of toxic substance it suspected.
It also accused Israel's IDF military of halting a logistics convoy. The Israeli military did not immediately respond to the statement.
Seriously though, Israel has proven over and over again that it has no respect for the UN whatsoever. Maybe it's time to kick them out, at least until they have a fucking non-genocidal government.
I had a good feeling you were being sarcastic... but I have former acquaintances who have unironically posted things along the lines of "The UN says Israel's doing war crimes? They must have been paid off by Hamas."
That's not true. You should look again at their comment history. Their comment above was making fun of Israel's tendency to retroactively label whoever they kill as Hamas.
Unrwa has admitted themself they let Hamas operate in their buildings. They also employed 100+ Hamas terrorists. Hamas has infilitrated and operated in many UN facilities, they have it figured out quite well how to infiltrate those facilities.
Can you link to your evidence for these two points? I may be out of date but the last time I looked there were much lower numbers being accused by Israel, and none of the accusations confirmed independently.
I don’t see how peacekeepers interacting with both sides of a conflict is proof of anything. By that logic all in troops interacting with Israelis should also be removed, and the UN should just take a shoot anything that moves near the border approach.
Didn't basically everyone resume UNRWA funding after looking at the evidence? You'd think they wouldn't have done that if the allegations were credible enough.
What have those "peacekeepers" been doing for the past 20 years, aside from watching while Hezbollah turns southern Lebanon into a terrorist base? Do they snack on popcorn while watching Hezbollah's rockets fly into Israel?
The evidence is the fact that the UN has been stationed in southern Lebanon since 2006 and in that time Hezbollah has established bases all across the region, which is in direct violation of UN Resolution 1701, and now the IDF is coming across those bases and weapons caches within spitting distance of UN watchtowers. And even after Hezbollah declared war on Israel by launching rockets into Israel starting on Oct 8, 2023, those same UN peacekeepers have done nothing to stop them and have tried to prevent Israel from retaliating.
So although it was a rhetorical question, it really wasn't.
I talked with Squid about this and we're restoring your comments. It looks to me like you both managed to talk right past each other.
You're right, the UN hasn't really done a thing to enforce resolution 1701. But then, when have UN troops EVER managed to enforce ANY resolution?
I'm old enough to remember George W. Bush arguing in favor of invading Iraq going "They're violating 17 UN resolutions!" and the reaction from sane people was "Yeah? And Israel is violating 80? 90? We going to invade Israel too?"
Where Squid went off was the whole "UN doing nothing" thing. It's pretty clear to me you MEANT nothing about 1701, but they are doing a lot of good humanitatarian work on the ground, you know, when Israel isn't SHOOTING AT THEM.
"Following the July/August 2006 crisis, the Council enhanced the Force and decided that in addition to the original mandate, it would, among other things, monitor the cessation of hostilities; accompany and support the Lebanese armed forces as they deploy throughout the south of Lebanon; and extend its assistance to help ensure humanitarian access to civilian populations and the voluntary and safe return of displaced persons."
If you need to blame somebody for failing to disarm Hezbollah, and it's obvious to anyone they have NOT disarmed, look toward the Lebanese army.
"Assist the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) in taking steps towards the establishment between the Blue Line and the Litani river of an area free of any armed personnel, assets and weapons other than those of the Government of Lebanon and of UNIFIL deployed in this area.
Assist the Government of Lebanon, at its request, in securing its borders and other entry points to prevent the entry in Lebanon without its consent of arms or related materiel."
The UN is not there to enforce the disarmament of Hezbollah. That's the job of the Lebanese, it's their country. The UN is purely there to assist.
Thank you. I didn't really understand what I did to warrant a ban.
I’m old enough to remember George W. Bush arguing in favor of invading Iraq going “They’re violating 17 UN resolutions!” and the reaction from sane people was “Yeah? And Israel is violating 80? 90? We going to invade Israel too?”>
Okay, but also not analogous. Bush used this as justification for invading another country that didn't pose a threat to the US.
Where Squid went off was the whole “UN doing nothing” thing. It’s pretty clear to me you MEANT nothing about 1701, but they are doing a lot of good humanitatarian work on the ground, you know, when Israel isn’t SHOOTING AT THEM.>
I'm sure they are. They're just not doing what they're supposed to be doing with respect to 1701, and their failure to do so poses an existential threat to Israel. I'm sure you're aware that in recent days the IDF has uncovered both Hezbollah plans to carry out a 10/7-style attack but on a larger scale, and multiple instances of Hezbollah operating from positions within very close proximity to UNIFIL positions. Kinds looks like UNIFIL has basically been providing cover for Hezbollah.
And you know full well that the Lebanese are controlled by Hezbollah. Unless they want to plunge the country into another devastating civil war, they're not going to challenge Hezbollah.
Well, if you want to argue "Lebanon is controlled by Hezbollah" then you have to fault the UN for specifically putting the Lebanese government in charge of the operation to disarm Hezbollah.
If you read 1701, there are only 2 groups authorized to be armed between the river and the border, the UN and the Lebanese army and the UN is only present to assist the Lebanese army, they aren't there to take action on their own, that is not in their mandate.
So knowing all that, yeah, no surprise nothing has happened in 20 years. ;)
Sorry, none of that backs up your misinformation post that the UN peacekeepers have done nothing in Lebanon for the past 20 years but "snack on popcorn" while Hezbollah fires missiles.
None of that suggests that UNIFIL does nothing. In fact, if UNIFIL found that tunnel, they were doing something.
So you just admitted yourself that your initial comment was misinformation. You're gone.