Addressing the UN Security Council from Beirut on Tuesday, UN assist chief Tom Fletcher stated “the current escalation is compounding a situation that is already critical”.
He stated 51 main healthcare centres and 4 hospitals had closed resulting from hostilities, with others broken or working at decreased capacities.
“Given the intensity of the coercive displacement that we are seeing, how should we prepare, collectively as the international community, for a new addition to the list of occupied territories?” Fletcher requested the council.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney known as Israel’s deployment of floor troops in Lebanon an “illegal invasion”, which violates its “integrity and sovereignty”.
“The government of Lebanon has banned Hezbollah, is taking action, is trying to take action against Hezbollah and their terrorist activities and their threats to Israel, and that is the purported justification for this invasion,” Carney stated.
A joint assertion signed by the overseas ministers of 10 European international locations, together with the UK, France and Italy, in addition to EU overseas coverage chief Kaja Kallas, urged Israel to keep away from widening its army operations in Lebanon and to respect the nation’s territorial integrity.
They expressed their “full support to the government and the people of Lebanon, who are once again suffering the dramatic consequences of a war that is not theirs”.
The ministers added that “the responsibility for the situation lies with Hezbollah”, and known as for the group to cease its assaults in assist of Iran in opposition to Israel.
Southern Lebanon is the heartland of Lebanon’s Shia Muslim group, Hezbollah’s primary assist base. But it can also be house to different communities, together with Christians.
The newest Israeli floor invasion has already prompted widespread alarm among the many Lebanese.
Under the ceasefire settlement that ended the war in 2024, Hezbollah was meant to disarm and depart its positions within the south. This was to be supervised by the Lebanese authorities and armed forces.
Progress was made, however it was partial. Israel additionally maintained a number of army posts within the south and continued to hold out common assaults on what it stated have been Hezbollah targets.
The will could have been there for the Lebanese authorities to disarm Hezbollah, however it has all the time lacked the flexibility to take action. The prospect of a serious confrontation between the Lebanese state and Hezbollah has additionally lengthy been a serious concern, reawakening fears of a descent again into civil war.
Katz beforehand stated that Israel was taking motion as a result of the Lebanese authorities had performed “nothing”.
Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun has described the Israeli plans as a “collective punishment against civilians”, and that they may very well be part of “suspicious schemes” to pursue an growth of Israel’s presence in Lebanese territory.
