Voicing extreme concern, UN chief says, ‘All-out war must be avoided In Lebanon at all costs’

Oct 1, 2024

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres Tuesday called for an immediate ceasefire between Israeli forces and Hezbollah fighters, as Israel launched what it claimed was as a “limited” ground incursion into Southern Lebanon.

“An all-out war must be avoided in Lebanon at all costs, and the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Lebanon must be respected,” Dujarric added.

The UN chief, he said, spoke to Lebanon’s Prime Minister Najib Mikati earlier in the day, assuring him that “the entire United Nations system in Lebanon is mobilized to assist all those in need in the country.”

Guterres appealed to international donors to provide urgent support for the $426 million humanitarian appeal launched in Beirut.

“The Secretary-General will continue his contacts, and his representatives on the ground will also continue their efforts to de-escalate the situation,” Dujarric said.

The UN Interim Force in Lebanon, UNIFIL, which patrols the line of separation between Lebanon and Israel mandated by the Security Council under Resolution 1701 following the last war between the two in 2006, issued a statement earlier in the day saying “the price of continuing the current course of action is too high”.

The mission stressed that civilians must be protected along with civilian infrastructure under international law.

Meanwhile, the United Nations launched a $426 million appeal for Lebanon on Tuesday to support one million people uprooted by widespread Israeli shelling amid what Israel has described as a “limited, localised and targeted” ground operation into Lebanon, across the UN-patrolled line of separation.

From the UN aid coordination office, OCHA, spokesperson Jens Laerke described chaotic scenes across Lebanon as people continued to flee airstrikes that have killed more than 1,000 people in the past two weeks alone, according to the UN human rights office, OHCHR.

“We should expect further displacement,” Laerke told reporters in Geneva.

“We do not have enough supplies, we do not have enough capacity and that’s exactly why we are launching this appeal because we need this additional injection of funds to actually procure it and capacities in place to increase the response which is not where it should be, because we are, as usual, running after the facts,” he continued.

“It’s easy to break things and hurt people but getting them back to some sort of normality takes a long time and costs a lot of money. So that’s why we need to stop this development and de-escalate this conflict as soon as possible.”

The UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) said that it had been informed on Monday about the Israeli military’s plans for “limited ground incursions”.

“Despite this dangerous development, peacekeepers remain in position,” the UN force said in a statement. “We are regularly adjusting our posture and activities, and we have contingency plans ready to activate if absolutely necessary. Peacekeeper safety and security is paramount, and all actors are reminded of their obligation to respect it.”

UNIFIL has around 10,500 peacekeepers from 50 troop-contributing countries. The Mission carries out some 14,500 activities per month, according to its website.

In a statement issued in response to the escalating emergency, the UN Mission highlighted that any Israeli crossing into Lebanon would be “in violation of Lebanese sovereignty and territorial integrity, and a violation of Resolution 1701” issued by the Security Council in 2006 aimed at stopping the war between Israel and Hezbollah.

“We urge all actors to step back from such escalatory acts, which will only lead to more violence and more bloodshed,” UNIFIL said.

Echoing those concerns, the UN human rights office, OHCHR, warned that the widening hostilities in the Middle East had the potential “to engulf the entire region in a humanitarian and human rights catastrophe”.

“Too many innocent children, women and men have been killed, and too much destruction has been exacted,” she said.

In addition to the more than one million people displaced in Lebanon, repeated shelling of northern Israel by Hezbollah that began in response to the Israeli war in Gaza has uprooted some 60,000 people, said OHCHR spokesperson Liz Throssell.

“With armed violence between Israel and Hezbollah boiling over, the consequences for civilians have already been terrible – and we fear a large-scale ground invasion by Israel into Lebanon would only result in greater suffering.”

She added: “All parties to these conflicts must clearly distinguish between military targets and civilians and civilian objects in the way they conduct hostilities. They must do all they can to protect the lives of civilians, their homes, and the infrastructure essential to their daily existence, as clearly required by international humanitarian law.”

On the other side in Gaza, almost a year since war erupted, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, described enormous needs among civilians.

“I can express on behalf of people who speak to me that that they do feel forgotten, and they do feel that their needs are not as important as others and what they need, just basic things food, water, shelter, are completely overlooked in in such devastating circumstances,” said UNRWA spokesperson Louise Wateridge.

“We’re now at 12 months into this war, and I can tell you that 1.9 million people have been displaced…a reported 41,000 people have been killed. I can tell you that 63 per cent of buildings have been damaged or destroyed. But I cannot quantify the horrors that people have endured relentlessly for 12 months.”

Speaking from Amman, Ms. Wateridge described how fear had been “instilled” into the “entire population, every hour of every day” after constant bombardment from land, sea and air.

Despairing doctors trying to save lives in hospitals were working amid the “overwhelming smell of blood…unable to save countless children”, the UNRWA spokesperson said, insisting that the situation in Gaza now “is as bad as it’s ever been”.

“Our ask has remained the same during the last 12 months of war: we need an immediate ceasefire, the return of the hostages and safe and sustained delivery of aid to give families a chance to rebuild their lives.”