Government lodges formal démarche over Israeli soldiers firing at Irish peacekeepers in Lebanon
The so-called démarche states Ireland considers the incident in the village of Yaroun as 'completely unacceptable in terms of the safety of peacekeepers and the execution of their mandated duties.'
The formal démarche has been served on the Israeli Government via the UN.
'These concerns are held at the highest levels' of the Irish Government and the Defence Forces, it reads.
No soldiers were injured and the incident was condemned by Government. The incident took place days after Israeli soldiers fired shots towards a group of diplomats, which included Irish officials.
'It's clear to me that the actions of the IDF were reckless, intimidatory, totally unacceptable and a clear breach of the international rules surrounding peacekeeping,' Tánaiste Simon Harris said earlier this week.
'I want to pay tribute to our personnel deployed with UNIFIL, who are operating in an increasingly volatile and tense environment.'
He was briefed yesterday on the incident by the new Chief of Staff Brigadier General Rossa Mulcahy.
The incident happened on International UN Peacekeepers' Day.
The 126th Infantry Battalion deployed to Lebanon this month as part of the Unifil mission. It is made up of 298 Irish soldiers and 10 from Malta, with over a third of personnel on their first overseas mission.
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