ISTANBUL

The UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) said Wednesday that its peacekeepers came under Israeli gunfire near the Sarda area in southern Lebanon, calling the incident a “serious violation” of UN Security Council Resolution 1701.

UNIFIL said in a statement that peacekeepers in vehicles patrolling the Blue Line, a de facto border, were fired upon by Israeli soldiers in a Merkava tank near Sarda on Tuesday.

“One ten-round burst of machine-gun fire was fired above the convoy, and four further ten-round bursts were fired nearby,” it added.

The mission said the peacekeepers immediately used UNIFIL’s communication channels to request that the Israeli army stop firing.

UNIFIL noted that both the peacekeepers and the Israeli tank were located inside Lebanese territory at the time of the incident.

No injuries were reported.

The UN mission said the Israeli army had been pre-notified of the patrol’s location and timing, as required for operations in sensitive areas near the Blue Line.

“Attacks on or near peacekeepers are serious violations of Security Council resolution 1701,” it said, calling on the Israeli army “to cease aggressive behaviour and attacks on or near peacekeepers working to rebuild stability along the Blue Line.”

There was no comment from the Israeli army on the statement.

UN peacekeeping patrols in southern Lebanon have been subjected multiple times to Israeli actions, including laser targeting and warning shots, in what UN Secretary-General António Guterres’s spokesperson, Stéphane Dujarric, called “extremely dangerous incidents.”

A ceasefire has been in place in Lebanon since November 2024, after more than a year of attacks that killed more than 4,000 people and injured 17,000 others against the backdrop of the Israeli genocidal war in Gaza.

At least 335 people have been killed and 973 others wounded in 1,038 Israeli attacks since the ceasefire, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry.

The Israeli army was supposed to withdraw from southern Lebanon in January 2025 under the ceasefire, but instead only partially pulled out and continues to maintain a military presence at five border outposts.