Israel registered a sharp protest with the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) Thursday, branding as false a charge that Israel was responsible for wounding six soldiers of the Irish contingent whose billet in the south Lebanon village of Tibnin was ripped by an explosion early Wednesday morning. The soldiers were asleep at the time. Maj. Gen. Yossi Peled, commander of the Israel Defense Force in the northern region, handed the protest to UNIFIL’s commanding general Gustav Haglund after the Irish commander accused the IDF of opening “tank fire” on the two-story billet. Unknown persons are believed to have planted the explosives.
The incident was the second this month involving Israel with UNIFIL’s Irish troops. Israel apologized to Ireland earlier for accidentally causing the death of an Irish soldier, Cpl. Dermot McLaughlin, on January 10 when IDF tanks fired on suspected terrorist positions in the south Lebanon security zone and inadvertently hit a UNIFIL command post.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
