India says closely monitoring situation in crisis-hit Lebanon: ‘Concerned at…’

India said on Friday that it is closely monitoring the situation in crisis-hit Lebanon after two United Nations (UN) peacekeepers in the country’s south were injured in an Israeli attack.
The Ministry of External Affairs issued a statement on Friday, saying, “We are concerned at the deteriorating security situation along the Blue Line. We continue to monitor the situation closely.”
“Inviolability of UN premises must be respected by all, and appropriate measures taken to ensure the safety of UN peacekeepers and the sanctity of their mandate,” the statement read.
On Thursday, UN peacekeepers said Israeli fire on their headquarters in south Lebanon wounded two Blue Helmets. Israel acknowledged its forces had opened fire in the area, saying the Hezbollah militants on whom it is waging an escalating war operate near UN posts, news agency AFP reported.
The peacekeepers did not suffer serious injuries Thursday “but they remain in hospital,” UNIFIL had said, while a spokeswoman said those wounded were from Indonesia, a major contributor of troops to the force.
Meanwhile, Lebanon’s foreign ministry was quoted by AFP as saying on Friday that the bombing targeted “watchtowers and the main UNIFIL base in Ras Naqura, and on the Sri Lankan battalion’s base, which led to a number of wounded”.
According to news agency AFP, the official National News Agency said an Israeli “Merkava tank targeted one of the UNIFIL [United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon] towers on the main road linking Tyre and Naqura”, wounding personnel from a Sri Lankan battalion.
It added that “enemy forces” also “fired an artillery shell, targeting the main entrance of the UNIFIL command centre in Naqura, leading to damage to the entrance”.
UNIFIL, which has about 10,000 peacekeepers stationed in south Lebanon, has called for a ceasefire since an escalation between Israel and Lebanese militant group Hezbollah on September 23, after almost a year of cross-border fire.
UN chief Antonio Guterres condemned Israeli forces firing on a peacekeeper base in Lebanon as a breach of international humanitarian law. “I condemn the fact that there was a shooting against a UN premise, wounding two peacekeepers, which is a violation of international humanitarian law,” the UN secretary general told reporters at a summit in Laos on Friday.
(With inputs from AFP)