Four Italian soldiers of the United Nations peace mission in Lebanon (FINAL) were successful minor injuries this Friday in a new attack, as confirmed by sources from the Italian Ministry of Defense, which is still investigating what happened.
Soldiers’ lives are not in danger, sources say about events at the UNIFIL peace mission base in southern Lebanon, which are already under investigation.
The area is confrontation scene among the Lebanese Shiite terrorist group Hezbollah and the army of Israelsince he invaded Lebanese territory at the beginning of October to fight the militias.
The ministry then clarified in a press release that, according to an initial reconstruction, the soldiers had been injured by gunfire. the explosion of glass after the impact of two rockets of 122 millimeters on the Jiam UNP 2-3 base.
The Minister of Defense, Guido Crosettotelephoned the contingent commander, Brigadier General Stefano Messina, to find out the condition of the injured soldiers and said that “they do not cause concern.”
He also spoke with the Lebanese authorities to defend the maintenance of Italian troops in southern Lebanon to “offer a window of opportunity for peace” and therefore, “they cannot be held hostage by the militias.”
“It is intolerable that once again a UNIFIL base has been hit. “I will try to speak with the new Israeli defense minister, which has been impossible since his appointment until today, to ask him to avoid using the UNIFIL bases as a shield,” he said. he declared.
And added: “The presence of terrorists in southern Lebanon, who endanger the security of the “blue helmets” and the civilian population, is even more intolerable.”
The installations of the UN peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon have been hit in recent weeks by clashes between Shiite militias and Israel.
This Friday precisely, the Israeli army ordered evacuation of several towns in southern Lebanon and the southern suburbs of Beirut as new attacks against Hezbollah are launched.
On Thursday, Hezbollah claimed responsibility for launch a series of rockets against concentrations of Israeli soldiers in the southern town of Khiam, about six kilometers north of the border with Israel.
Last Tuesday The base was hit by eight rockets launched by the militia according to the Italian government, although no one was injured, although since the beginning of the invasion the Israeli army has also fired on them.
So much so that last October, Italy has already complained to Israel after the attacks on the UN contingentwhich has around 1,200 Italian troops, and last week Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani urged his Israeli counterpart, Guideon Saar, to guarantee the safety of UNIFIL soldiers.
The Italian government has ensured the continuity of its contingent on the base. The Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, He visited Lebanon in October and called for the strengthening of the UNIFIL contingent to promote it as a means of calming the conflict in the Middle East.
