Israel has filed a complaint with the United Nations against a Finnish unit of the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon, charging that the unit refused humanitarian aid to an Israeli tank crew that came under fire in southern Lebanon.
The complaint was based on an incident last week, when an Israeli tank was hit by a missile fired by gunmen with the Islamic fundamentalist Hezbollah movement.
The commander of the tank was killed, and several men were wounded.
An Israeli drove the damaged tank to a UNIFIL post manned by Finnish soldiers and asked to use the radio to contact the Israel Defense Force. The Finnish soldiers refused on the grounds that their radio could not make contact with the IDF network, the complaint said.
The complaint described the Finnish soldiers’ reactions as callous and not in conformity with the humanitarian mission of UNIFIL, which has been in Lebanon since 1978.
UNIFIL spokesman Timor Goksel said the incident was due to a “most regrettable misunderstanding.”
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