Firing at the headquarters of the U.N. peacekeeping force in Lebanon and other incidents the force blames on Israel is unacceptable and "could constitute a war crime," Italy's defense minister said Thursday.
The United Nations said Israeli troops had fired on the headquarters of its peacekeeping mission known as UNIFIL on both Wednesday and Thursday, injuring at least two U.N. peacekeepers.
The UNIFIL is stationed in southern Lebanon to monitor hostilities along the demarcation line with Israel – an area that has seen serious clashes between Israeli troops and Iran-backed Hezbollah.
These are the first casualties among U.N. soldiers since Israel's ground invasion of Lebanon began one week ago. Israel's military has not yet commented on the incident.
"This was not a mistake and not an accident," Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto told a press conference. "It could constitute a war crime and represented a very serious violation of international military law."
He added that Italy has asked for an official explanation "because it was not a mistake."
Crosetto also summoned the Israeli ambassador in Rome and lodged a strongly worded complaint with him.
Israel has sought to shift the UNIFIL peacekeepers away from the border, but Italy said it had no right to do so.
"I told the ambassador to tell the Israeli government that the United Nations and Italy cannot take orders from the Israeli government," Crosetto said.
France also said it was waiting for explanations from Israel, stressing that it was an obligation to ensure U.N. peacekeeping troops' safety.
"France expresses its deep concern following the Israeli shots that hit the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon and condemns any attack on the security of UNIFIL," the foreign ministry said in a statement, adding that none of its 700 troops in the mission had been wounded.
"We await explanations from the Israeli authorities. The protection of peacekeepers is an obligation that applies to all parties to a conflict," it noted.
'Grave' violation of international law
The UNIFIL has been monitoring the border area between Lebanon and Israel for decades. More than 10,000 U.N. soldiers from around 50 countries are involved.
After Indonesia, Italy is the second-largest provider of troops, with 1,000 soldiers participating in the mission.
Spain on Thursday also strongly condemned Israeli fire on the positions of U.N. peacekeepers which it said were a "grave violation of international law."
"The Spanish government strongly condemns the Israeli fire that hit the UNIFIL headquarters in Naquras," the foreign ministry said in a statement, demanding that the security of the peacekeepers be "guaranteed."
Israel has mounted massive airstrikes across Lebanon against what it claims are Hezbollah targets since Sept. 23, killing at least 1,323 people, injuring over 3,700 others, and displacing more than 1.2 million.
The aerial campaign is an escalation in a year of cross-border warfare between Israel and Hezbollah since the start of Tel Aviv's brutal offensive against the Gaza Strip that has killed more than 42,000 people, mostly women and children, since an attack by Palestinian resistance group Hamas last year.
Despite international warnings that the Middle East region was on the brink of a regional war, Israel expanded the strikes on Gaza by launching a ground invasion into southern Lebanon on Oct. 1.