BEIRUT (AP) — The outgoing deputy commander of the U.N. peacekeeping force in Lebanon was injured Friday when protesters attacked a convoy taking peacekeepers to the Beirut airport, the force known as UNIFIL said in a statement.
“We are shocked by this outrageous attack on peacekeepers who have been serving to restore security and stability to south Lebanon during a difficult time,” it said.
It said that the deputy commander — Maj. Gen. Chok Bahadur Dhakal from Nepal — had been set to leave the country after completing his mission when the UNIFIL convoy “was violently attacked, and a vehicle was set on fire.”
The Lebanese army intervened to disperse the protesters. The army said in a statement that acting commander Maj. Gen. Hassan Odeh had contacted UNIFIL and promised to “work to arrest the citizens who attacked its members and bring them to justice.”
Demonstrators have been blocking the road to the airport and other roads in the capital to protest a decision by Lebanese authorities to revoke permission for a passenger plane from Iran to fly to Beirut on Thursday, leaving dozens of Lebanese passengers stranded.
The decision to ban the Iranian plane came after the Israeli army issued a statement claiming that Iran was smuggling cash to the militant group Hezbollah via civilian flights, leading some in Lebanon to allege that their country's authorities had caved in the face of a threat from Israel.
Lebanon’s civil aviation agency said Thursday that “additional security measures” meant some flights were temporarily rescheduled until Feb. 18 -- the same day as a deadline for Israel and Hezbollah to fully implement the ceasefire agreement that ended their latest war in late November, including a full withdrawal of Israeli forces from southern Lebanon.
Earlier on Friday, the U.S. representative on a committee overseeing the ceasefire agreement said that “significant progress” had been made ahead of the deadline.
However, Maj. Gen. Jasper Jeffers’ statement appeared to leave some ambiguity on whether Israel would withdraw its forces from all of southern Lebanon by Feb. 18, saying only that he was confident “all population centers in the Southern Litani Area” would be back under Lebanese control by then.
In areas where Israeli forces pull out, the Lebanese army and UNIFIL are tasked with ensuring Hezbollah does not reestablish a military presence.
The deadline for Israel and Hezbollah to withdraw was initially set for late January, but Israel and Lebanon agreed to extend it. Lebanese officials say they won’t agree to another extension and adamantly reject an Israeli proposal to keep its forces in five border points after leaving other areas.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said Thursday that his country had proposed a beefed-up UNIFIL presence, including French forces, in place of Israeli troops at those five points. The monitoring committee also includes France, Lebanon, Israel and UNIFIL.
UNIFIL was created to oversee the withdrawal of Israeli troops from southern Lebanon after Israel’s 1978 invasion. The U.N. expanded its mission following the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah, allowing peacekeepers to deploy along the Israeli border to help the Lebanese military extend its authority into the country’s south for the first time in decades.
Hezbollah supporters in Lebanon frequently accuse the U.N. mission of collusion with Israel, while Israel has accused the peacekeepers of turning a blind eye to Hezbollah’s military activities in southern Lebanon.
In December 2022, an Irish peacekeeper was killed after a mob attacked a UNIFIL convoy that entered a village in southern Lebanon outside of the area where the force has a mandate to patrol.
During the Israel-Hezbollah war, UNIFIL also alleged that Israeli military fire had targeted its facilities and peacekeepers on multiple occasions, with some of the strikes being “clearly deliberate.”
Hezbollah and its allies appeared to be scrambling to distance themselves from Friday's attack. Hezbollah's Al Manar TV said in a statement posted on its social media accounts that “unruly elements caused chaos with suspicious objectives on the Beirut airport road.”
The Amal Movement, the political party of parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, a Hezbollah ally, said in a statement that “the attack on UNIFIL is an attack on southern Lebanon” and called for the army and security forces to pursue the perpetrators.
Abby Sewell, The Associated Press
