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An Israeli drone crashed into the headquarters of UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon but caused no casualties, the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) said in a statement on Wednesday.
The UNIFIL said that by flying drones over Lebanon, Israel was violating a UN Security Council resolution that helped end the 14-month conflict with the militant group Hezbollah.
Resolution 1701, which was first approved in 2006 to end a previous round of fighting, calls for both sides to respect each other’s airspace.
UNIFIL said that its explosive ordnance disposal experts secured and neutralised the drone immediately after it hit the headquarters in the border town of Naqoura on Tuesday afternoon.
The peacekeepers added that the drone was not armed but was equipped with a camera.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military, but UNIFIL said the IDF “subsequently confirmed the drone belonged to them.”
The peacekeeping force said that while peacekeepers are prepared to take action against threats to their safety, “this device fell on its own”.
The incident comes two weeks after UNIFIL said Israeli drones dropped four grenades close to peacekeepers in southern Lebanon near the border with Israel as they were working to clear roadblocks. No one was hurt in that strike.
Established in 1978, UNIFIL has more than 10,000 peacekeepers from 50 countries who regularly patrol the Blue Line, the UN-drawn border between Lebanon and Israel and have also been involved in efforts to de-escalate tensions between the two sides.
The most recent Israel-Hezbollah conflict killed more than 4,000 people in Lebanon, including hundreds of civilians, and caused an estimated $11 billion (€9.3 billion) worth of destruction, according to the World Bank.
At least 27 people were killed, including 80 soldiers, in Israel.
The conflict started when the Iran-backed Hezbollah, which is ideologically aligned with Hamas, began firing rockets into Israel on 8 October 2023, a day after the Hamas-led incursion of militants into southern Israel sparked the war in Gaza.
Israel responded with shelling and airstrikes into Lebanon, and the two sides became locked in an escalating conflict involving near-daily exchanges of fire until a ceasefire was signed in November 2024.
Additional sources • AP
