Italian Defense Minister Guido Croceto contacted his Israeli counterpart to protest the shooting at the headquarters of the UN peacekeeping mission Unifil in southern Lebanon.
“Everything that is happening near the Italian Unifil bases in southern Lebanon and in general regarding the Unifil mission starting from its general headquarters, by me personally and the Italian government are considered unacceptable,” the Italian minister stressed.
Read about it: Lebanon: Israel strikes UN peacekeeping posts – Two injured
Crosetto “received assurances regarding the attitude of utmost care regarding the security of military personnel but reiterated that any possible mistake that would endanger the soldiers, Italians and Unifil must be avoided.”
The Italian Minister of Defense also invited Israel’s ambassador to Italy to “protest strongly about the events and underline that what is happening in southern Lebanon at the expense of the mission, the general headquarters and especially at the expense of the Italian Unifil bases, cannot under no circumstances to be considered acceptable and are also in complete opposition to international law, while flagrantly violating Resolution 1701,” as stated in a written statement by the Italian Ministry of Defense.
Population evacuations
At the same time, Amnesty International expressed its concern that Israel’s evacuation orders in southern Lebanon could lead to a “mass movement” of the population and denounced the “misleading” warnings about the southern suburbs of Beirut, Hezbollah’s stronghold.
“The Israeli orders for southern Lebanon cover large geographical areas and there are fears that they were issued for a mass movement,” the non-governmental organization claims.
He added that he feared “most of the civilian population will be displaced” from the south, to the border with Israel, where Israeli soldiers are multiplying their ground operations, backed by devastating aerial bombardment.
For the southern suburbs of Beirut, where bombings are now daily, the head of Amnesty International, Anies Kalamar, spoke of “inadequate” evacuation orders. Some were accompanied by “deceptive maps” and shared very late: “once, less than 30 minutes before the strikes, in the middle of the night and on social networking sites,” while residents were asleep and there was little chance of seeing them.
In the first week of October alone, Israel ordered the evacuation of 118 communities in southern Lebanon. Among them was the Christian village of Ain Ebel, which has no known links to Shiite Hezbollah, Amnesty International said, calling on Israel to minimize risks to civilians as required by international law.
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