Israel Matzav

UNIFIL confirms it was Lebanon's fault

This actually comes as somewhat of a surprise - I never expected UNIFIL to confirm that Israel was right and Lebanon was wrong in Tuesday's incident near Misgav Am (Hat Tip: Memeorandum).

UNIFIL forces who toured the site of Tuesday's deadly exchanges of fire on the northern border said the IDF's activity did not warrant the attack launched by Lebanese Army soldiers, Israeli army officials who spoke to UNIFIL representatives said.

...

Israeli army officials believe the Lebanese force was operating under a company commander whose decision to open fire on the IDF troops was supported by higher-ranking Lebanese officers.

The Lebanese Army claimed it had opened fire on Israeli soldiers who infiltrated Lebanese territory. The IDF retaliated with artillery and tank fire, and the Air Force attacked Lebanese Army positions in the village of al-Taibeh.

...

The army estimates that the Lebanese officer in charge of the attack was an extremist.

I have reported in the past that as much as two thirds of the Lebanese Army is Shiite sympathizers with Hezbullah. They are full of 'extremists.'

Still, this must have been really blatant for UNIFIL to back the IDF. Totally unexpected.

UPDATE 9:07 AM

JPost even has a quote from a UNIFIL source on the record.

"I can confirm that we received notification from the IDF about the work and we passed the information on to the Lebanese Army," said the Hungarian diplomat who is part of the UNIFIL force in southern Lebanon.

He added that UNIFIL does not believe IDF soldiers crossed the international border during the maintenance work, but a UNIFIL technical team will investigate Wednesday where the IDF forces were exactly in relation to the border when the Lebanese Army snipers opened fire.

In other words, this was a premeditated attack on the Israeli forces - an ambush as the IDF said on Tuesday, in flagrant violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701.

But don't expect the UN to do anything about it.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 8:18 AM