UN demands halt to escalating attacks between Hezbollah and Israeli forces

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. Security Council on Wednesday demanded a halt to the increasing attacks between Lebanon’s Hezbollah militants and Israeli forces and warned that further escalation “carries the high risk of leading to a widespread conflict.”

Israel and Iranian-backed Hezbollah pulled back after an exchange of heavy fire across the U.N.-drawn boundary between Lebanon and Israel over the weekend, but their decades-old conflict is far from over and regional tensions linked to the war in Gaza are still high.

Israel’s U.N. ambassador, Danny Danon, told reporters before the vote that he had a message for the Lebanese people: “You and your government have a choice to make, confront Hezbollah today or watch as your country is dragged into chaos and destruction.”

The Security Council demand that Israel and Hezbollah halt hostilities came in a resolution unanimously approved by its 15 members that urged the “relevant actors” to restore “calm, restraint and stability.”

The French-drafted resolution extended for another year the mandate of the U.N. peacekeeping force in Lebanon known as UNIFIL, which has been in the country since 1978. UNIFIL was created to oversee the withdrawal of Israeli troops from southern Lebanon after a 1978 invasion.

The Security Council expanded the mission after a 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah so that peacekeepers could deploy along the Lebanon-Israel border to help Lebanese troops extend their authority into their country’s south for the first time in decades. That resolution also called for a full cessation of Israeli-Hezbollah hostilities, which has not happened.

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.

During the ongoing clashes between Hezbollah and Israeli forces in southern Lebanon, UNIFIL facilities or vehicles have been hit by shelling or gunfire on several occasions. Earlier this month, UNIFIL said three peacekeepers were on patrol were lightly injured when an explosion occurred near their vehicle.

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Associated Press writer Abby Sewell in Beirut contributed to this report.