Spokesperson for UN Interim Force in Lebanon says ‘there was a unanimous decision to stay’

A spokesperson for UN peacekeepers in Lebanon on Saturday said that Israel had requested it leave its positions in south Lebanon where Israel is clashing with Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, but they had refused.

They asked us to withdraw “from the positions along the blue line … or up to five kilometers (three miles) from the blue line,” UN Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil) spokesperson Andrea Tenenti told Agence France-Presse (AFP), using the term for the demarcation line between both countries. “But there was a unanimous decision to stay,” he said.

  • small44@lemmy.worldEnglish
    56·
    2 months ago

    Respect for staying determined to do the job they was assigned to despite all the risks

  • Kokesh@lemmy.worldEnglish
    562·
    2 months ago

    israel has no right to command anyone else in sovereign country. It has the same value as that degenerated removedputin talking about something happening in Ukraine.

  • PugJesus@lemmy.worldEnglish
    31·
    2 months ago

    Good. Brave fellows. I hope their observation of Israeli war crimes ends up used in trials in the future.

  • Skua@kbin.earth
    25·
    2 months ago

    Can/will the peacekeepers actually shoot back? I can’t imagine the orders that they were deployed under accounted for an Israeli ground invasion

    • lnxtx (xe/xem/xyr)@feddit.nlEnglish
      231·
      2 months ago

      The worst scenario, in self-defense, when life is threatened.

      The US satellites won’t go against Israel.

      • girlfreddyOPEnglish
        23·
        2 months ago

        There are three basic principles that continue to set UN peacekeeping operations apart as a tool for maintaining international peace and security.

        These three principles are inter-related and mutually reinforcing:

        -Consent of the parties
-Impartiality
-Non-use of force except in self-defence and defence of the mandate

        https://peacekeeping.un.org/en/principles-of-peacekeeping

  • tal@lemmy.todayEnglish
    237·
    2 months ago

    Bigger question. Given that it’s known that Israel’s issuing evacuation orders for places that it’s going to hit, why are people on the ground making the call to go or stay? Like, why hasn’t this policy call been made at a higher level?

    I’d understand if this were the first one going out and nobody had time to make a policy call on it. Then you have to make an ad hoc call quickly.

    But this isn’t that situation, not now.

    • Kokesh@lemmy.worldEnglish
      151·
      2 months ago

      israeli government/army are the same assholes as those fuckers surrounding them. hamas, hezbollah, all same shit.

      • goferking0@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
        10·
        2 months ago

        Gotta love accounts saying why aren’t they just following Israel ordersthen finding them saying Israel is keeping the civilian killed ratio at low levels in the same say

    • goferking0@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
      10·
      2 months ago

      Why would a peacekeeping force listen to the ones being the aggressors?

      Why would anyone be dumb enough to try and order them around or shoot them?

    • girlfreddyOPEnglish
      7·
      2 months ago

      Because it’s their own life at stake and they should always have the choice.

      • tal@lemmy.todayEnglish
        126·
        2 months ago

        In a military operation, there are going to be directives as to how to act. You have RoEs, and usually normally countries are going to make calls as to what they want to do from a policy standpoint with their militaries.

        • girlfreddyOPEnglish
          22·
          2 months ago

          The UN isn’t a military organization. It is a peacekeeping org and as such is not bound by the same operational rules as an army would be.

          • tal@lemmy.todayEnglish
            123·
            2 months ago

            The soldiers are sent from the militaries of member countries.

            • small44@lemmy.worldEnglish
              15·
              2 months ago

              Doesn’t mean they have the same obligations as normal soldiers. Like unifil soldiers can’t engage in offensive attacks unlike soldiers in the members countries armies. Their role is to monitor rather than engage militarly. I don’t even think the country members have also the authority to order them to move due to the contract

            • girlfreddyOPEnglish
              71·
              2 months ago

              That does not mean they work under military rules. They are under UN control, and the UN is a peacekeeping force. It is not a nation state military force.

              • tal@lemmy.todayEnglish
                114·
                2 months ago

                The UN isn’t, but the soldiers themselves are, and are acting for their respective member state military:

                https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_peacekeeping

                Most of these operations are established and implemented by the United Nations itself, with troops obeying UN operational control. In these cases, peacekeepers remain members of their respective armed forces, and do not constitute an independent “UN army”, as the UN does not have such a force.

                • girlfreddyOPEnglish
                  11·
                  2 months ago

                  … with troops obeying UN operational control

                  That says the UN controls the troops.

                  They are not an army, they are a peacekeeping force.

                  They are also under UN rules, not their own nation’s.

                  If the UN decides they can choose to stay or leave, that’s what happens.