Irish peacekeepers in South Lebanon narrowly avoided injury after their convoy was caught in what is believed to be an Israeli airstrike, according to reports.
The incident, which occurred in the village of Hanine, has raised concerns about the safety of international peacekeepers in this volatile region.
The suspected strike took place as a convoy of two armoured vehicles, carrying six Irish soldiers and two Polish colleagues, was passing through the village.
Shrapnel from the explosion, reportedly targeting a Hezbollah-linked building, struck the vehicles. Fortunately, the armoured utility vehicles (AUVs) provided adequate protection, and no injuries were sustained by the personnel.
As I tweeted last evening. Thanks @NiallJournal_ie for more context! Video here zoomed in, original footage had #Israeli Defence Force (IDF) logo & #Hebrew descriptions for locations, indicating #IDF released footage not realizing it featured #UN vehicles.https://t.co/paOpxcZgEg
— Eoin McNamara (@McNamara_Eoin) August 12, 2024
A recently surfaced video, purportedly from an Israeli drone or aircraft, appears to show the moment of the strike. The infrared footage captures a large explosion, with debris visibly scattering onto the road just as the convoy rounds a nearby corner.
The Irish Defence Forces have confirmed that all troops involved are safe and accounted for. The soldiers executed their standard procedures, quickly driving away from the blast site and returning to their base at UN Post 245. Despite the incident, the Irish contingent continues its mission in the area, which involves monitoring a ceasefire line between Hezbollah and Israel.
An investigation is now underway, led by UNIFIL (United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon) alongside the Irish Defence Forces. The investigation is expected to focus on the remnants of the ordnance used and data from a French radar installation in South Lebanon, which monitors Israeli military activity in the region.
Speaking in Dublin, Irish Foreign Minister Micheál Martin expressed deep concern over the incident, emphasising the importance of ensuring the safety of peacekeepers.
“We will be making representations on foot of this, on the basis that both the IDF [Israeli Defence Forces] and Hezbollah must fulfil their obligations to peacekeepers,” Martin stated.
This event also adds to the ongoing diplomatic tension between Ireland and Israel, which has been heightened since Ireland’s recent recognition of the State of Palestine. Relations have been further strained by Israel’s recall of its ambassador from Dublin and a diplomatic démarche directed at Ireland earlier this year.
More on this when we can get it.
Not the first time, won’t be the last time.
Politically clumsy. You do not want the Irish-American vote going any more Anti-Israel
You are acting like this is the first time IDF (or their proxies) and DF have had weapon exchanges? Nothing will change even if the IDF had hit the patrol.
Americans of Irish heritage comprise less than 10% of the American population and 90% are third generation or later. Their only connection to Ireland is getting drunk on St Patrick’s day and being grateful that they don’t live in Ireland.
Evidence to contrary…well bar related evidence anyway…as a bet I once did a Irish bar pub crawl from NY to the canadian boarder with a requirement to get a donation of something random from each bar to send back to a girlfriend in Ireland as a present…every single bar person donated…it was hard on the liver mind.
Yes you only have to look at wiki for any American of note for a claim to Irish heritage though by the same logic ‘experts’ traced the deceased Queen back to Mohamed so clearly about as reliable as claims by inmates of Irish pubs. The other anomaly I note is despite these claims of links to the ‘old Country’ from 200m odd Americans not one American actor seems remotely capable of an accurate Irish accent, it always goes back to what I assume is a New York derivative of a perceived Irish accent which has formed over a century or… Read more »
Living in America is better?
A bold assumption.
IMHO if you are born in America you are American. I laugh at these people who are several generations US-born but claim “I’m Irish”, they have never been to Ireland, yet have an indoctrinated dislike of the British “oppressors”.
Then that applies to all the Scottish-Americans, Italian-Americans and German-Americans as well, These communities exist in great number in North America and they are American and Canadian by nationality. Ethnicity and ethnic background are different than nationality.
That’s interesting, I hadn’t realised it’s so low. It seems the % has been dropping over the last few decades.
However they are a loud minority with a lot of political clout in the US. Just like us the US has first past the post system and so not all voters are equal.
If you call 35 Million, well established. wealthy (several lobby groups) as low then you would like to see the Italian-American and German-American groups.
Likewise in Canada where Irish-Canadians make up 13% of the pop which amounts to 4.5 million.
Ummm…especially the Irish-American occupying the WH for the next five months. There should be a method of transmitting deconfliction notices for UNIFIL forces on a timely basis. The Israelis really cannot afford to further alienate Europeans by their voluntary actions. 🤔
It’s a dangerous job that occasionally means young troops having to put themselves directly the firing line in a fluid warzone, somtimes directly targeted, but there’s always the ever present danger of miss identification.
Lucky miss on this occasion….
They, or more precisely their meglomaniac leader and his far right henchmen, seem to be on some unending death wish which blatantly forgets that without Western support, his Country is unviable. Which begs the question if Trump and his US power brokers and sycophants are so into ‘America Only’ why they seem to play the Israeli line so closely and cover their backs. Can only assume there are influencers in the US he badly needs onside because few of his supporters are Israeliphiles even if the leaders of the Religious Right are tied at the hip to the Old Testament… Read more »
Ummm…er…sorry, unable to determine whether or not you agree w/ the proposition that the Israelis cannot currently afford to unduly antagonize the European populace, w/ their current tactics in Lebanon, strictly as a matter of enlightened self-interest. 🤔
Note sure the State of Israel cares about international opinion and certainly not European opinion.
If survival comes into the calculation, then no, they don’t care because the alternative is Holocäust II
The State of Israel is not under threat, they have nuclear weapons after all. The Government of Israel is another matter. Perhaps I should have said the ‘Government of Israel does not care about international and in particular European opinion’.
They might listen to US opinion, but only if it agrees with theirs.
Enough said.
While I’m pro Isreal, this statement is not true. When our leftie loons talk of an economic embargo on Isreal it does focus their attention.
The European elite supports Iran’s proxies. Afford doesn’t come into it.
An impossibility.
Am Australian of Irish heritage , and far as I am concerned all the good Irish left that country with only yellow Orange men and traitors who wielded Winnies Cannons free of charge for him on they’re fellow Catholics . Though to be honest children I helped raised are red coats thanks to antiquated dress reg for Australia oldest Regiment .
They do have a history of supporting terrorists. At least, until the WTC towers collapsed on to their heads. They went quiet after that.
Probably time to remove the peace keeping mission that’s monitoring the ceasefire lines between Israel and Hezbollah..they are going to end up casualties to no end whatsoever.
It’s an extremely dangerous job in an active war zone, no doubt about it Jonathan…
As a side note, one of my French business contacts sons, works for Doctors without frontiers, he’s been shot at, beaten up and mugged and been involved in a bloody near thing with an IED.
All this over 15 years in some of the very worst places on earth. On a few occasions they have had Irish UN troops with them and he rated them very highly for their cool heads and professionalism.
Reportedly the plan is for the majority to be pulled out to Cyprus if things majorly escalate.
Personally I think they need to be removed before the escalation….essentially the time for peacekeepers as observers of the ceasefire is over, the ceasefire is defacto over as well.
That isn’t just a political decision, but also a diplomatic one with all the issues that it brings. It might well be that events make UNFIL’s mission impossible, but lets not pretend this is the first time the circumstances have been this way. UN forces have been on the ground and engaged by all sides more than once over the last few decades.
As I understand it 48 solders have died on that mission…and one was murdered by Hezbollah a year ago…I would say that they really need to pull back operations from the platoon observation posts and simply keep the whole mission confined in UNP 24-5…at least that’s almost 700 UN troops in one place.
Has it occurred to you that something like that is what both sides want? When it suits them, Israel considers UN forces as fair game as the various terrorist forces do. Like I said, this has happened many times before.
Yep that’s exactly what they want….trouble is at some point soon both sides are going to go full tonto at each other…it’s simply not worth the lives for a mission that has already failed.
So they were not deliberately targeted then.
Difficult. If the IDF were hitting a time sensitive target with recent intelligence,
would they know the location of UN patrols?
Do the two sides cooperate to deconflict?
I wouldn’t be surprised if it was a case of the Israelis not being overly concerned one way or the other, it’s far from the first time they’ve hit UN units. I still love their excuse the time they managed to hit a post that had been in place for 30 years… it wasn’t on their maps, even though they had observation posts overlooking it…
The Israelis know every square inch of that area.
i don’t buy it either.
IDF will probably not warn, there is a fair amount of “distrust” involving the United Nations within the IDF/IAF etc….Probably thinking that warning any UN patrols is just like warning Hezbollah itself.
Or they just don’t care about hitting UN units, its not the first time, not likely to be the last time.
Really?
If they did not cared why in a more than a couple thousands attacks against Heezbollah targets in almost 12 months what you have to attack Israel is this?
I think it is admirable these odds – even if more instances – but it is pretty clear that do no matter to you.
I’m not sure what you are trying to say in that, my point however is that Israeli (or their proxies back in the day) attacks on UNFIL aren’t new, they go all the way back to the Lebanese Civil War, when it suits them, Israel will consider UNFIL loses as a bonus.
I believe it’s a pretty standard known patrol…the Israelis would have had eyes on the target…I suspect Mark is right they did not care….Ireland is pretty meaningless to them as is the UN…
Not just meaningless, they or their proxies have history back to the Lebanon Civil War engaging Irish UN forces, hence why I said not the first time, likely not the last time.
The IDF has a history of shooting first and coming up with excuses later, this being unintentional or a time sensitive target doesn’t excuse poor reconnaissance and decision making. Western nations give Israel too long of a leash, if they want western backing they should play by western rules.
Except they arent based in the west, they arent in a safe area surrounded by allies and the west havent been persecuted and slaughtered by everyone for 2000years. The have a chip on their shoulder and its not surprising really.
You have to ask, what are the UN actually doing or achieving by patrolling the Lebanese/Israeli border? Hezbollah just bypass them, using unguided rockets and now drones. They have not achieved their primary purpose of deterring Hezbollah from attacking Israel. It’s all well and good having political gestures, but if you force is militarily ineffective, what’s the point?
You pretty much summed up most of the UN security missions unfortunately.
A worthy project as long as both sides play by the rules.
The rules of engagement for all missions are compromises between the different factions and forces involved, so it always ends up a disaster.
Or if the UN actually put significant forces down and mandate a kinetic response…the best example being the Balkans when everyone got sick of the genocides and the UN mandated NATO to use lethal force….essentially peace by asking NATO to bomb the crap out of the Serbian army until it gave up.
Sure, and what are the chances that anyone gives that type of mandate to a anywhere around Israel?
Zero…the only way it will happen if Isreal suffered a military collapse and Hezbollah flooded in and to be honest before that happened Israel would trigger the Sampson option….and even if it didn’t not and Hezbollah fanatics overran Israel I think Russia would simply veto any UN major intervention..
Good example.
Unfortunately most of these missions are not like that. Canada was one of the biggest peacekeeping contributors around. Rwanda and Bosnia left the troops and the brass very disillusioned with peacekeeping. Too many reasons to list here.
Canada now only contributes staff officers to missions
completely agree DaveyB
Political posturing by Ireland and everyone else there.
At times these Israelis 🙄 I know they don’t take any crap and why should they but when hitting targets one does have ask ourselves anymore mistakes . 😟
What makes you think it’s a mistake? It’s far from the first time Israel (or it’s proxies back in the day) has come close to or actually hit UN forces.
Oh well
What is the point of the UN troops even being there? Iran and Hezbollah have turned Lebanon into one huge military base, there is no intent on peaceful co-existence.
The mandate for UNFIL has nothing to do with how Lebanon has struggled with the various factions.
That is not my point.
Iran has given Hezbollah so much support and many weapons that the UNIFIL forces are just spectators, they can do nothing to enforce peace, and neither side is seeking peace. It is not a surprise that they find themselves coming under fire.
Considering the clear and obvious Irish antipathy to anything Israeli and the IDF in particular plus the total inability of the so called peace keepers to fulfill its mandate from the UN to ensure that Hezbollah is nowhere near the southern border with Israel and the latter operate with impunity and use that area as a convenient firing base into Israel, then it is a surprise that when the IDF retaliates with a clear accuracy from where the Hezzies fire that only adjacent shrapnel hits their vehicles.
I do not understand any Westerner who is pro-Palestine. The history books show us exactly what 1400 years of Islamic Jurisprudence and culture has led to, conquest, religious totalitarianism, and subjugation. Irish people would support that over a secular democratic state?
The Irish see the situation for what it is, an indigenous group being driven out of their country through violence by a group driven by colonial and neocolonialist interests. In this case the Irish know full well what it means to be on the side of the victim. Of course you can raise your points of “october 7” and somehow gain amnesia of the past, but the point remains that being pro-palestine does not mean one condones such an event. Lack of understanding is your own issue. Also the fact your making this simply a sole-religious issue, when it is… Read more »
The typical delusional response from an apolgist of the terror cult and as to colonial interests etc etc….all talk and no substance.
The Irish have a chip the size of the Blarney stone on their shoulders and use as an excuse to support any terror organisation such as the proxies of Iran who proagate a fundamentalism of Hegemony over humanity, Taqquya the permission to lie to further their aims, the sexism and manic determination to rule the Free world and place it under their dominance……NO thankyou.
Rubbish. Those lands have changed hands many times over centuries, you dismiss religion as a source of conflict but it has played a huge role in the conquest and reconquest of this part of the Middle East. Ask yourself these questions: most of the Middle East and North Africa had large Jewish populations (and Christian enclaves), what happened to them? why are there no Jewish communities in the rest of the Middle East these days? The answer is they were killed, driven out, or forced to convert by Islamic conquest and colonisation, Today there are 51 Muslim countries, but just… Read more »
To be fair, Hadrian accounted for quite a few as well I believe.
What a skewed way of seeing things… as if christianity has fared any better
Skewed? Read some history books. The important thing is that Western Europe had a “Renaissance” period where most “Christian” countries moved away from religion-based culture toward the modern secular societies we are today. In other words, we left religion behind to progress and good riddance to it. Whereas Islam is immutable, if you are part of that belief system, your whole life revolves around it, It is totalitarian and demands, not to be questioned criticised, or changed, and loyally followed. The people who follow this also believe it is their god’s will and their life-bound duty to proselytize until the… Read more »
Peacekeepers should only be deployed to situations where peace is desired by all interested parties. They shouldn’t be there. The UN seems to love the idea of using militaries as some kind of domestic police force.
We’re getting off piste here guys, getting very heated re the usual Israeli/Irish ‘triggers’.
Getting back to the issue, you have to question the point of the UN presence there.
The troops involved are in serious danger and will likely find themselves deep in the sticky stuff if both sides go toe to toe…
As has been said, the drones and counter air strikes have made then largely irrelevant anyway.
Pull them out, before they start coming home in bodybags.