Israel wanted withdrawal
UN blue helmets in southern Lebanon will not be deployed
The UN does not intend to comply with Israel's request to redeploy parts of its UNIFIL peacekeeping force in Lebanon. The soldiers of the UN observer mission will "remain in their positions", a UNIFIL statement said on Saturday.
Around 170 members of the Austrian Armed Forces are currently serving as blue helmets in Lebanon. They are stationed in Camp Naqoura, around 110 kilometers south of the capital Beirut, near Israel's border.
On September 30, Israel had called on the UN peacekeeping force to "withdraw the blue helmets from some of their positions", as the Israeli army was planning "limited ground operations in Lebanon". However, the peacekeeping force soldiers "will remain in all their positions and the UN flag will continue to fly", the statement said.
Peacekeeping force has been stationed since 1978
The UNIFIL peacekeeping force has been stationed in Lebanon since 1978 and comprises more than 10,000 soldiers and civilians. UN Resolution 1701 from 2006 significantly expanded the tasks of the blue helmet force. The peacekeeping force was given the task of monitoring a ceasefire reached in the border area following a war between Israel and Hezbollah at the time and supporting the Lebanese army in border protection.
In recent weeks, the conflict between Israel and the pro-Iranian Hezbollah militia in Lebanon has intensified significantly. Following massive airstrikes on targets of the Hezbollah militia, which is allied with the radical Islamic Palestinian organization Hamas, the Israeli military announced the start of a "limited ground operation" in the south of Lebanon on Tuesday night.
Iran launched a large-scale missile attack on Israel on Tuesday evening, citing the killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah last week by an Israeli air strike in a southern suburb of Beirut as one of the reasons. According to Israeli reports, the majority of the 200 or so missiles fired from Iran were intercepted.
Guterres an "undesirable person" for Jerusalem
Relations between Israel and the UN are tense. On Wednesday, the Israeli government declared UN Secretary-General António Guterres an "undesirable person" because, in its view, he had not sufficiently condemned the previous Iranian missile attack on Israel.
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz declared that Guterres was an "anti-Israeli Secretary-General who supports terrorists, rapists and murderers".
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