UN peacekeepers in Lebanon say Israel has been attacking their bases. Now Israel has told them they should leave. Patrick Wintour reports
As Israel fights Hezbollah in Lebanon, another unexpected conflict has been sparked. UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon have complained that Israel has been firing on their positions and the UN has said more than 15 of its soldiers have been injured. Israel has said it is not attacking the peacekeepers but called on them to leave the area, insisting they have failed in their mandate to disarm Hezbollah along the so-called blue line. But the UN says it will not pull out.
The Guardian’s diplomatic editor, Patrick Wintour, explains that this row has decade-long roots and that Israel and the UN have had a bitter relationship almost from the start. But since 7 October and Israel’s war on Gaza, things have deteriorated still further. Israel has banned the UN’s secretary-general from the country and said the institution is antisemitic. The UN’s departments and sections have released a flurry of condemnations of Israel’s actions and its general assembly voted for a resolution that said Israel must leave the occupied territories within a year.
