At dawn on Sunday, October 13, two Israeli tanks rammed through the gate of a UNIFIL base in Lebanon and forced their way into a UN compound, just days after Israeli fire had already wounded five peacekeepers from the peacekeeping force in the previous days. This latest incident adds to the pressure exerted by Israel to obtain the withdrawal of UN forces from southern Lebanon. On the same day, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered UN peacekeepers to evacuate the south of the country, where his army entered on October 1 to fight Hezbollah. Addressing this forceful request to UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, who has been declared persona non grata in Israel on October 2, Netanyahu threatened: "Your refusal to evacuate the UNIFIL soldiers makes them hostages of Hezbollah. This endangers both them and the lives of our soldiers."

Also on Sunday, the Israeli army tried to minimize the significance of what happened that morning at the entrance to the UNIFIL base, claiming that one of its units had come under fire from Hezbollah, in an attack that left some 20 of its soldiers wounded, and that the intrusion of a tank into the UN force's compound was part of an evacuation maneuver. In the evening, Stéphane Dujarric, spokesperson for Antonio Guterres, said that "attacks against peacekeepers are in breach of international law, including international humanitarian law. They may constitute a war crime." Forty countries contributing to UNIFIL have issued a joint statement calling for the protection of peacekeepers in Lebanon.

This had no effect on Israel's position, which is part of a broader charge against the United Nations and the institutions of international justice. The country's repeated attacks target both the legitimacy of the UN and its judicial body, the International Court of Justice, and that of the International Criminal Court, two institutions that call into question Israeli leaders, the way the war in Gaza is being waged and the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories.

Peter Lintl, a researcher at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP) in Berlin, pointed out that the tension between Israeli governments and the United Nations is long-standing, but is now taking on a paroxysmal form, or "crystallization," a product of the context of the ongoing war and the radicalism of the current leadership. "It is without doubt the [Israeli] government with the most hostile attitude ever toward the United Nations," he said.

You have 48.39% of this article left to read. The rest is for subscribers only.