Safety of peacekeepers ‘paramount’ amid Israeli op in Lebanon: Jean-Pierre

While the UN forces, including about 900 Indians, are holding on to their positions in Lebanon amid the Israeli ground operation and the Hezbollah offensives, the "paramount criteria is safety and security of our peacekeepers", the head of peacekeeping has said.

Under-secretary-general for peace operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix said on Thursday that the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) has contingency plans for their safety, "not one, but many, depending on various hypotheses in terms of how the situation could evolve and we are constantly looking not only at the evolution of the situation, but also at those plans themselves".

He said that peacekeeping operations officials, including himself, were constantly in contact with the troop-contributing countries briefing them about the situation and the contingency plans.

Meanwhile, The World Health Organization (WHO) has said that 28 healthcare workers have been killed in 24 hours in Lebanon amid escalating hostilities.

"Many health workers are not reporting to duty as they fled the areas where they work due to bombardments," WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said during a briefing in Geneva on Thursday. "This is severely limiting the provision of mass trauma management and continuity of health services."

UNIFIL is posted along the Blue Line that primarily separates Israel and Lebanon and among its mandates are keeping the area free of "hostile activities" and ensuring that no one other than the Lebanese forces have an armed presence there.

However, vast swathes of the area are controlled by the Iran-affiliated militia, Hezbollah.

Israel has retaliated against Hezbollah with what it calls "limited" ground incursion and aerial bombardment. However, there are fears that Israel could launch a full-scale invasion.

UNIFIL is caught between the opposing sides.

Explaining the decision to ignore the Israeli demand to vacate some of the positions, including some close to the Blue Line, Lacroix said, "We had made a very considerate, thorough and thoroughly discussed decision that it would be better for UNIFIL, for peacekeepers, for in terms of our responsibility to the mandate to stay in those positions."

UNIFIL has taken steps to strengthen the protection of peacekeepers, he said, and these include the physical protection of the positions and reducing the number of peacekeepers at some of the positions by about 20 per cent.