Ireland has issued a formal rebuke to Israel via the United Nations after Israeli soldiers fired shots into an area being patrolled by Irish peacekeepers in southern Lebanon on Thursday.
The Government lodged the démarche, a diplomatic letter of protest, which describes events in the village of Yaroun as “completely unacceptable in terms of the safety of peacekeepers and the execution of their mandated duties”.
The letter said the concerns are held “at the highest levels” of the Irish Government and Defence Forces. The Tánaiste, Simon Harris, was on Friday briefed on the incident by the new Defence Forces chief of staff, Brig Gen Rossa Mulcahy.
It is understood that up to 30 shots were fired over a period of nine minutes towards a joint Irish-United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil) and Lebanese armed forces patrol close to the Blue Line, which separates Lebanon from Israel and the Golan Heights.
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No one was injured, but the unit was forced to leave the area. Irish troops have all been confirmed as safe and well.
“It’s clear to me that the actions of the IDF were reckless, intimidatory, totally unacceptable and a clear breach of the international rules surrounding peacekeeping,” the Tánaiste said.
“I want to pay tribute to our personnel deployed with Unifil, who are operating in an increasingly volatile and tense environment.”
[ Irish peacekeepers come under fire while on patrol in LebanonOpens in new window ]
In a statement to The Irish Times on Friday, Israeli ambassador to Ireland Dana Erlich said: “The incident is still being examined, and from an initial investigation by the IDF, there was no shooting at Unifil, but at suspicious individuals who approached the Blue Line.
“There have been many recent incidents of Hizbullah harassment and attacks on Unifil. It appears that Ireland is not reporting nor protesting those incidents. Why is that the case?”
