15
OCT
2024
The attacks by the Israeli armed forces on positions of the UN Blue Helmets in Lebanon had already begun on Wednesday with the targeted destruction of control devices of two UNIFIL bases. On Thursday, Israeli troops fired at a door of a bunker at a UNIFIL base and shot down a watchtower at UNIFIL headquarters in Naqoura, injuring two blue helmet soldiers (german-foreign-policy.com reported [1]). On Friday, two more peacekeepers were injured in two explosions near another watchtower in Naqoura, while the Israeli armed forces with bulldozers tore down various walls at a UNIFIL base. 2] In the evening, a blue helmet was finally hit by bullets at the headquarters in Naqoura and seriously injured, whereby UNIFIL in this case indicates that it is not sure who shot.[ 3] Early Sunday morning, two Israeli Merkava tanks destroyed the main gate of a UNIFIL base, penetrating it and demanding that the lighting be switched off. This is probably explained by the fact that the tanks, as an Israeli military spokesman explained, came under fire and sought cover at the Blue Helmet Base, i.e. abused it as a protective shield.[ 4]
On Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu went one step further and urged the complete withdrawal of UNIFIL troops. He demanded, addressed to UN Secretary-General António Guterres: "Bring the UNIFIL troops out of the danger zone!"[ 5] The Israeli government has violently attacked Guterres several times. Already in December 2023, the then Foreign Minister Eli Cohen had accused the UN Secretary-General, as he had demanded to prevent a "humanitarian catastrophe" in the Gaza Strip, of "support for the terrorist organization Hamas" and even "approving the murder of old people, the kidnapping of babies and the rape of women". 6] In January, Cohen's successor, Israel Katz, demanded the resignation of the UN Secretary-General: "Guterres must resign."[ 7] If he refuses to do so, the United Nations would have to dismiss him. At the beginning of October, Katz declared the UN Secretary-General, who had pushed for an end to the mutual attacks by Israel and Iran, to be persona non grata: A secretary general, "the terrorists, rapists and murderers of Hamas, Hezbollah, the Huthi and now also of Iran ... Backing is a "shame" for the United Nations.[ 8]
The demand that UNIFIL must withdraw weighs heavily: The Blue Helmet Force is not stationed on Israeli territory, but on Lebanese territory and is equipped with a mandate from the UN Security Council, which was last adopted on 28. August unanimously by one year until 31. August 2025.[ 9] Guterres rules out the withdrawal of UNIFIL on a command of the Israeli Prime Minister. On the attacks on UNIFIL, the UN Secretary-General states: "Attacks on peacekeeping forces violate international law, including international humanitarian law. They could be a war crime.”[ 10] Internationally, the attacks are widely criticized massively. Already on Saturday, 40 states that provide UNIFIL personnel had "sharply condemned" the attacks in a joint statement, including France, Italy, Ghana, India, China, Malaysia and Indonesia. 11] EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on behalf of the EU: “Such attacks on UN peacekeeping forces are a serious violation of international law and are completely unacceptable.” They would have to be "hired immediately". 12] Several EU countries joined. New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon warned that "the whole world" was outraged. 13]
As the dispute escalates, a recent report in the New York Times shows that the Israeli armed forces regularly use Palestinian civilians as human shields - in the ruins as well as in the tunnels of Gaza, to uncover, for example, booby traps or ambushes and, if necessary, to spare the lives of Israeli soldiers with their death. Captured civilians - including minors - are sent to mined buildings, for example, or caused to move possibly mined objects in order to render any explosive devices harmless. 14] The accusation is not new; the New York Times was now able to confirm the proceedings by seven Israeli soldiers who had actively participated in it or observed it as eyewitnesses, as well as eight others who had knowledge of it. According to the US newspaper, the openly contrary to international law, the openly contrary to international law procedure was practiced by at least eleven Israeli units in five cities in the Gaza Strip, with Israeli intelligence officers often present. The soldiers surveyed by the New York Times confirmed that they had been routine, organized measures in which captured Palestinians had even been passed on to other units - for use as sniffer dogs.
The actions of the Israeli armed forces, which are obviously contrary to international law, raise questions for the federal government - and not only because Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, who is otherwise quickly at hand with sermons under international law, is persistently silent. It is particularly serious that the Bundeswehr maintains relations with the Israeli armed forces, which are classified by German soldiers as "incredibly dense" - for good reason: they include not only regular meetings at the level of the Army General Staffs, but also concrete training measures in which German soldiers have been declared to learn from the Israeli operational experiences for quite some time in order to become an operational army. 15] Years ago, the military attaché reported to Israel's embassy in Berlin that they shared "with the German army almost continuously and directly every insight" that one "gains from the practical experience in the use of our army". Among the tactics in which the Bundeswehr wanted to be trained by the Israeli armed forces was, among other things, house and tunnel fighting in a training center in the immediate vicinity of the Gaza Strip. 16] The now well-documented practices of the Israeli armed forces, which are contrary to international law, raise the question of the content of the training of German troops in Israel - in the official as well as in the possible unofficial.
[1] S. to this Peacekeeper under fire.
[2] UNIFIL Statement (11 October 2024).
[3] UNIFIL Statement (12 October 2024).
[4], [5] Netanyahu calls for withdrawal from UNIFIL. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 10/14/2024.
[6] The sound gets sharper. tagesschau.de 07.12.2023.
[7] Paul Ronzheimer, Šejla Ahmatović: Guterres must go! Israel wants UN chief out. politico.eu 30.01.2024.
[8] Israel prohibits UN Secretary-General from entering. tagesschau.de 02.10.2024.
[9] Security Council renews UNIFIL's mandate, demands full implementation of resolution 1701. unifil.unmissions.org 28.08.2024.
[10] Guterres warns against "war crimes" against UN troops. tagesschau.de 10/14/2024.
[11] 40 nations contributing to UN Lebanon peacekeeping force condemn 'attacks'. france24.com 12.10.2024.
[12], [13] Guterres warns against "war crimes" against UN troops. tagesschau.de 10/14/2024.
[14] Natan Odenheimer, Bilal Shbair, Patrick Kingsley: How Israel's Army Uses Palestinians as Human Shields in Gaza.
[15], [16] p. on this "In the national interest of Germany" (III).