Ireland and the United Nations Interim Forces in Lebanon have lodged protests with Israel in response to recent incidents by Israel’s allied South Lebanon Army in which, they say, SLA forces “indiscriminately” fired toward positions held by Irish troops with the international force.
In the latest incident, according to a protest Ireland made Saturday, a tank shell was lobbed at the main building housing Irish company headquarters in Barashit village. There were no casualties, but the shelling caused structural damage.
UNIFIL spokesman Timor Goksel said that just within the last week there have been 60 incidents of firings close to Irish positions or patrols in the Barashit area.
He said several Irish positions, along with two armored personnel carriers, were hit and damaged by SLA fire. The fire was part of artillery actions carried out against the Shi’ite fundamentalist organization Hezbollah, as well as against other targets operating north of Israel’s so-called security zone.
“Unless the firing ceases immediately, someone is going to get hurt, and that will only serve to make an already bad situation worse,” Goksel said.
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