Attacks on UN peacekeepers tellingly lawless: China Daily editorial

Deliberate attacks on United Nations personnel involved in peacekeeping operations, including armed members, are unlawful and amount to war crimes.

Such attacks are a grave violation of international humanitarian law and UN Security Council Resolution 1701 (2006), according to a statement issued by the United Nations after the recent attacks on UN peacekeepers by Israeli forces, which have a long history of such attacks.

In 1987, an Israeli tank squad opened fire on a village where a UN Interim Force in Lebanon command post was located, killing an Irish peacekeeper. In 1996, Israel shelled the UNIFIL's Fijian battalion in southern Lebanon's Qana, when more than 120 Lebanese civilians were killed and about 500 injured. Four UN soldiers, too, were injured. In late November 2023, Israeli forces fired at a UNIFIL patrol close to Aitaroun in southern Lebanon, although no peacekeepers were injured.

In their latest attacks on UN peacekeepers, Israeli forces repeatedly fired at a guard tower at the headquarters of the UNIFIL on Thursday, injuring two members of the force, and fired at a watchtower, injuring two more peacekeepers, on Friday.

If Israel's initial strikes against Hamas in the Gaza Strip could be considered retaliation for the latter's surprise attacks on its civilians on Oct 7, 2023, it is a brazen and serious breach of international law for its military forces to deliberately fire at the UN peacekeepers in Lebanon.

Given what it has done to UN peacekeepers previously, the only explanation is that Israel takes it for granted that it can act with impunity to fulfill its military objectives.

It seems that Israel considers everyone is a valid target, even UN peacekeepers and civilians, in pursuit of its war aims.

If Israel considers it justifiable to flout international law by deliberately firing at UN peacekeepers, it absolves itself of the right to condemn Hamas for its Oct 7 attacks and the launching of rocket attacks against it by Hezbollah, as well as other military organizations in the Middle East.

By killing innocent civilians in Gaza and targeting UN peacekeepers in Lebanon, Israel is telling the world that it does not obey international law and, instead, considers itself to be a law unto itself. But if it follows the principle that the end justifies the means, then it should not be surprised that the military organizations which are fighting against it adopt the same principle.

This mutual no-holds-barred approach is the prime reason why the vicious cycle of violence between Israel and the militant forces it is fighting shows no sign of abating — why there seems to be little hope of peace in the Middle East.

For Israel, the more brutal and violent its military actions are, the more impossible it will be for it to achieve the lasting peace and security it hopes to attain.

Support from the United States makes a great difference to what Israel can do in flexing its military muscles. Without the military and other aid from the US, Israel does not have enough of the resources it needs to sustain its protracted military actions both in Gaza and southern Lebanon.

In this sense, the support Israel gets from the US is the key to how far Israel can go in pressing ahead with its military campaigns. The influential role American Jews play in US politics is a factor in the US election, which explains why Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is bold enough to challenge US President Joe Biden without fearing losing the support of the US.

As far as the role of the US is concerned, it should shoulder its responsibility and use its leverage to keep Israel in check. The longer it fails to use its influence on Tel Aviv to end the military conflict or at least realize a cease-fire, the more it will become complicit in Israel's flouting of international law, and thus the more it will be viewed as being an accomplice, further undermining its claim to be upholding common values. Might does not make right, as Washington and Tel Aviv seem intent on proving.