Daily Press Briefing by the Office of the Spokesperson for the Secretary-General
The following is a near-verbatim transcript of today’s noon briefing by Stéphane Dujarric, Spokesman for the Secretary-General.
Turning north to the situation in Lebanon, I can tell you that the Secretary-General has been in very frequent contact with Force Commander of UNIFIL [United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon], the UN peacekeeping mission and that’s Lt. Gen. Aroldo Lázaro. The Secretary-General is extremely appreciative of the courage and dedication of the more than 10,000 uniformed peacekeepers and civilian staff serving in the mission.
Our UNIFIL colleagues continue to monitor the situation. On Sunday, the mission detected 1,557 instances of firing across the Blue Line — that’s the highest number in one day since 8 October 2023 — 1,441 of these originated from south of the Blue Line, primarily striking areas in Sector East of the UNIFIL area of operations. There were 116 instances of firing from north of the Blue Line into Israel, with a Hizbullah drone strike near Haifa reportedly killing 4 IDF [Israel Defense Forces] soldiers and injuring several others. Over 30 people have been killed in southern Lebanon since 10 October.
UNIFIL continuously assesses and reviews all factors to determine its own posture and its own presence and its positions across the Blue Line. The mission is taking all possible measures to ensure the protection of its peacekeepers. UNIFIL’s role and its presence in southern Lebanon, as you know very well, is mandated by the UN Security Council. In this context, UNIFIL is committed to preserving its capacity to support a diplomatic solution based on Security Council resolution 1701, which, as far as we are concerned is the only way forward.
You saw over the weekend a series of events happening along the Blue Line, in which our peacekeeping mission positions there were impacted, and some of the peacekeepers were hurt. Our UNIFIL colleagues say that since 1 October, UNIFIL positions have been impacted on 20 occasions, including by direct fire, and, on one occasion, breached by two tanks from the IDF.
To address these issues among others, the head of our peacekeeping department, Jean-Pierre Lacroix, will be briefing Security Council members later this afternoon, in closed consultations — and he is expected to underscore our concerns with respect to the continued exchanges of fire across the Blue Line as well as the repeated impacts on UNIFIL positions in recent days.
Five peacekeepers have been injured during these incidents, including one peacekeeper who sustained a bullet wound. The peacekeeper has been treated and is in a stable condition. The source of that gunfire has yet to be confirmed by UNIFIL.
You will have seen the various statements issued by UNIFIL this weekend and also a statement we issued on Sunday on behalf of the Secretary-General in which he reiterated that UNIFIL personnel and its premises must never be targeted. Attacks against peacekeepers are in breach of international law, including international humanitarian law. They may constitute a war crime. He called on all parties, including the IDF, to refrain from any and all actions that put our peacekeepers at risk.