‘Hell Is Breaking Loose in Lebanon’

Monday [23 September 2024] saw Lebanon’s bloodiest day in a generation, as Israel continues to bombard largely Hezbollah-controlled territory, doubling down on the devastating electronic device attacks which killed hundreds last week.

With an appeal for both sides to respect Lebanese sovereignty, Mr. Guterres said that the State “must have full control of its weapons” throughout the country.

“We support all efforts to strengthen the Lebanese Armed Forces”, he added.

OCHA/Lebanon | Hebbariyeh village in southern Lebanon lies in partial ruins following hostilities across the Blue Line.

The UN chief said the daily violations across the Blue Line were in violation of key Council resolutions 1559 (2004)  and 1701 (2006).

Civilians must be allowed to return home

With nearly 200,000 Lebanese now internally displaced, along with more than 60,000 northern Israelis, many lives have been lost since Hezbollah first began firing rockets over the line of separation in support of Hamas in Gaza, he added.

The communities on both sides “must be able to return to their homes and live in safety and security, without fear”, the Secretary-General said.

He applauded all diplomatic efforts taken so far towards escalation and pledged the UN’s continuing support for a ceasefire and increase in humanitarian relief for stricken Lebanese civilians.

“Despite the dangerous conditions, our peacekeepers remain in position”, he said, referring to the UN Interim Force, UNIFIL, although most civilian personnel have temporarily relocated.

“I implore the Council to work in lock-step to help put out this fire”, the UN chief told ambassadors.

“Civilians must be protected. Civilian infrastructure most not be targeted…To all sides, let us say in one clear voice: stop the killing and destruction. Tone down the rhetoric and threats. Step back from the brink.”

He said an all-out war must be avoided at all costs. “It would surely be an all-out catastrophe.”

UN Photo/Manuel Elías

Israel attempting to make Lebanon ‘a new Gaza’: Algerian Foreign Minister

Once again, Lebanon is facing “flagrant Israeli aggression, brutal aggression and hateful aggression,” said Algerian Foreign Minister Ahmed Attaf.

UN Photo/Manuel Elías | Foreign Minister Ahmed Attaf of Algeria addresses the Security Council meeting on the situation in Lebanon.

He told the Council that what is happening there is “part and parcel of the policy of escalation” that Israel uses as a deliberate strategy elsewhere in the Middle East.

He said Lebanon is facing an attack on its sovereignty, and its security and stability are being undermined.

“All the elements of the crime have come together now in accordance with Israeli occupation.  As they have done in Gaza, they are doing the same in Lebanon,” he said.

“This is a crime against peace,” he continued. “It’s a crime of aggression, a crime against humanity, a crime of war, a genocide. In other words, it is an attempt to change Lebanon and to make it into a new Gaza.”

Nobody wants a repeat of 2006 war: US

United States Ambassador Robert Wood said his country has engaged extensively with all parties in the region since the Council last met to discussion the situation along the Blue Line frontier.

UN Photo/Manuel Elías | US Ambassador Robert Wood addresses the Security Council meeting on Lebanon.

He recalled that President Biden emphasized to the General Assembly that a diplomatic solution consistent with resolution 1701 remains the only path to durably reverse the cycle of escalation and enable displaced people on both sides to return to their homes.

Mr. Wood said the US has “repeatedly made clear” that the Council cannot ignore the origins of this particular conflict between Israel and Hezbollah.

He noted that hundreds of thousands of Lebanese civilians, and more than 65,000 Israeli civilians, have been displaced as a result of Hezbollah’s decision on 8 October to break the peace that had largely endured along the Blue Line since the adoption of resolution 1701.

Furthermore, Hezbollah’s buildup of weapons, many of which are supplied by Iran, and its presence along the Blue Line in defiance of resolutions 1559 and 1701, have long been a source of instability, he added.

“Nobody wants to see a repeat of the full-blown war that occurred in 2006, but the path to enduring stability goes beyond ending cross-Blue Line strikes. It must end with a comprehensive understanding relating to the Blue Line that has real implementation mechanisms,” he said.

Pull back from the brink: UK

United Kingdom Foreign Secretary David Lammy told the Council this was a moment of “maximum danger. We are on the brink, the precipice.”

He said though top diplomats talk about a regional war, “the truth is we are already witnessing conflict on multiple fronts: in Gaza, in the West Bank, in Lebanon and the Red Sea.”

He said some 550 Lebanese had been killed in recent days, while Hezbollah rockets that have killed Israelis, “are just the latest in the cycle of pain, anguish and loss.”

“On both sides, now is time to pull back from the brink”, Mr. Lammy continued, adding that his Government had been working hard with the US and France to formalise a wider demand for a ceasefire and a political plan to implement resolution 1701.

Lebanon a victim of ‘electronic cyber aggression’

Mohammad Najib Azmi Mikati, President of Lebanon’s Council of Ministers, said his country is facing “a blatant violation of our sovereignty and human rights”.

Lebanon is the “victim of an electronic cyber aggression and of an air and maritime aggression that can turn into a ground aggression and can become an all-out regional war,” he warned.

“We are witnessing today an unprecedented escalation resorting to new tools, especially electronic tools, to harm my people,” he continued.

“The aggressor is claiming that they are only targeting combatants and weapons, but I assure you that the hospitals of Lebanon are full of civilian injured people, including dozens of women and children.”

Mr. Azmi Mikati said he hoped to come out of the meeting “with a serious solution based on the joint efforts of all the members of the Security Council to put pressure on Israel to achieve an immediate ceasefire on all fronts and to restore stability and security to our region.”

Israel: ‘No nation would sit idly by’

Israel’s Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon said no other country would behave any differently to Israel, faced with attacks across its borders from north and south.

“No nation would sit idly by as their citizens were attacked. Over the past week Israel has been conducting precise strikes in Lebanon against Hezbollah’s command centres” and missile launch sites, he added.

Given the chance, Hezbollah would carry out another 7 October, he warned, saying that with regard to the 2006 peace settlement outlined through resolution 1701, “the time for half measures is over, it must be enforced in full, without delay” – including the provision which says the Lebanese army should be on the border, not Iran’s proxy force: Hezbollah.

“Never again will the Jewish people hide from the monsters whose purpose in life is to murder Jews”, Mr. Danon said, adding that Iran was the spider at the centre of the web of violence engulfing the Middle East. 

‘Weaponization’ of communication devices a ‘new version of terrorism’: Iran

Iran’s Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi described the situation in the region as “extremely explosive”.  If left unchecked, an “all out unprecedented catastrophe would be inevitable.”

He said that “in continuation of its brutality in occupied Palestine”, Israel is now waging an unjust war of aggression against Lebanon.

He added that “the deliberate and indiscriminate targeting of civilians in Lebanon by detonating pagers, walkie-talkies and other electronic devices used by rank-and-file citizens across the country, must sound the alarm for the entire international community.”

Calling this “the most outrageous manifestation of the weaponization of ordinary communication devices,” he said “this new version of terrorism must be profoundly condemned by all,” otherwise it could “establish a very dangerous precedent that could be easily replicated by other terrorist groups and entities besides Israel.”