Israel’s military has attacked UNIFIL troops deployed on the Lebanon–Israel border a dozen times, including possibly with white phosphorus, the Financial Times (FT) reported on 22 October.
According to a confidential report prepared by a country contributing troops to the UN mission, Israeli forces forcibly entered a clearly marked UN base and are suspected of using the incendiary chemical white phosphorus, injuring 15 UN soldiers.
Israeli forces began targeting UN troops shortly after launching ground operations across the border into Lebanon on 1 October.
UNIFIL has called the attacks “deliberate” and a “flagrant violation of international law.”
UN troops, which come from 50 separate countries, have rejected Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s demand that they evacuate their border posts to clear the way for current Israeli military operations in southern Lebanon.
Israel hopes to establish a so-called security zone and push Hezbollah fighters some 30 kilometers away from the border to positions behind the Litani River.
The confidential report viewed by FT includes photographs documenting the extent of the damage done to bunkers that shelter UN troops, perimeter walls, and observation towers at several bases.
On Sunday, an Israeli bulldozer deliberately demolished an observation tower and perimeter fence of a UN position in Marwahin.
On 10 October, two UN troops were injured when an Israeli Merkava tank opened fire and struck an observation tower at the UNIFIL headquarters in Naqoura on the Lebanese coast. The same day, Israeli forces fired at a UN bunker sheltering Italian troops in Labbouneh.
The report says the Israeli military first surveilled the area with drones and destroyed the bunker’s cameras before attacking.
Israeli forces also fired several munitions, which landed near a base and emitted “smoke of suspected white phosphorus” into it.
The FT notes that Israel has used white phosphorus in Lebanon throughout the past year. Its use is unlawful in populated areas under international law.
UN troops were deployed to the Lebanon–Israel border following Israel’s first invasion of Lebanon in 1978. Repeated invasion attempts were made in 1982, 2006, and 2024.
Israeli troops occupied large areas of southern Lebanon between 1982 and 2000 before armed resistance by Hezbollah forced them to withdraw.
