Burak Bir
11 October 2024•Update: 11 October 2024
LONDON
Italy's defense minister said Thursday that Israeli army fire on the positions of UN peacekeepers in Lebanon could be “war crimes,” adding there could be no justification for it.
"The hostile acts carried out and repeated by the Israeli forces could constitute war crimes," Guido Crosetto said at a news conference in Rome.
The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) said earlier that its headquarters in Naqoura and other sites have been repeatedly shelled by Israeli forces, leaving two peacekeepers injured.
Earlier Thursday, Crosetto summoned the Israeli ambassador to Italy because of the "unacceptable" attack.
"These are extremely serious violations of the norms of international law, not justified by any military reason," Crosetto noted, reported by Italian news agency, ANSA.
Crosetto said he told the Israeli ambassador that Italy "cannot take orders from the Israeli government."
Israel has mounted massive airstrikes across Lebanon against what it claims are Hezbollah targets since Sept. 23, killing at least 1,323 people, injuring over 3,700 others, and displacing more than 1.2 million.
The aerial campaign is an escalation in a year of cross-border warfare between Israel and Hezbollah since the start of Tel Aviv’s brutal offensive against the Gaza Strip that has killed more than 42,000 people, mostly women and children, since a Hamas attack last year.
Despite international warnings that the Middle East region was on the brink of a regional war amid Israel’s relentless attacks on Gaza and Lebanon, Tel Aviv expanded the conflict by launching a ground invasion into southern Lebanon on Oct. 1.
