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Web Desk
As Israel fights Hezbollah in Lebanon, another unexpected conflict has been sparked. UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon have complained that Israel has been firing on their positions and the UN has said more than 15 of its soldiers have been injured.
Israel has said it is not attacking the peacekeepers but called on them to leave the area, insisting they have failed in their mandate to disarm Hezbollah along the so-called blue line. However, the UN says it will not pull out.
Israel’s actions have only compounded the long-standing tensions between the two entities.
The Guardian’s diplomatic editor, Patrick Wintour, explains that this row has decade-long roots and that Israel and the UN have had a bitter relationship almost from the start. But since 7 October and Israel’s war on Gaza, things have deteriorated still further.
Israel has banned the UN’s secretary-general from the country and said the institution is antisemitic. The UN’s departments and sections have released a flurry of condemnations of Israel’s actions and its general assembly voted for a resolution that said Israel must leave the occupied territories within a year.
The relationship between Israel and the UN has been fraught for decades.
Michael Safi recalls his visit to the border and the peacekeepers over the summer and asks how countries whose soldiers are part of the peacekeeping force will react to Israel’s actions. This episode was amended on 16 October 2024.
An earlier reference to a legal case brought against South Africa by Israel at the International Court of Justice should have said that the legal case was brought against Israel by South Africa. make a news story for a news portal on this news for 500 words, without headings.
