UN, peacekeeping mission call on Israel, Hezbollah to cease fire amid cross-border escalation

BEIRUT

The Office of the UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon (UNSCO) and the UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon (UNIFIL) called on Israel and Hezbollah on Sunday to cease fire amid an exchange of cross-border attacks between the two sides.

In a statement, UNIFIL and the UNSCOL expressed deep concern over the recent developments along the Blue Line (Lebanese-Israeli border) and called for an immediate cessation of hostilities and “refrain from further escalatory action.”

“A return to the cessation of hostilities, followed by the implementation of UN Security Council resolution 1701, is the only sustainable way forward,” the statement said.

On August 11, 2006, the UN Security Council unanimously adopted Resolution 1701, which called for a complete halt to hostilities between Lebanon and Israel and the establishment of a zone free of armed personnel and weapons between the Blue Line and the Litani River in southern Lebanon, except for the Lebanese Armed Forces and UNIFIL.

“We will continue our contacts to strongly urge for de-escalation,” UNIFIL and the UNSCOL said.

Israeli warplanes launched over 40 airstrikes on southern Lebanon early Sunday, the most severe attack since cross-border attacks with Hezbollah began on Oct. 8, 2023. The Israeli army claimed that the strikes aimed to prevent an impending Hezbollah attack.

The Lebanese group, for its part, said it launched hundreds of missiles and drones deep into Israel in the “first phase” of its response to last month’s assassination of its commander Fouad Shukr in Beirut.

Since October 8, 2023, Hezbollah has been engaged in daily exchanges of fire with the Israeli army across the Lebanese-Israeli border, resulting in hundreds of casualties, mostly on the Lebanese side.

The escalation comes against the backdrop of a brutal Israeli war on the Gaza Strip, which killed over 40,300 Palestinians since last Oct. 7 after a Hamas attack. The military campaign has reduced much of the territory to rubble and left most of the people homeless, hungry and prone to disease.

* Writing by Ikram Kouachi