Italian PM Meloni announces to visit war-hit Lebanon

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said Tuesday she would visit Lebanon, where Italian troops are part of a UN mission that has accused Israeli forces of firing on peacekeepers.

“It is already planned that I will go to Lebanon,” she told the Senate, without giving a date.

Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani will be heading to Israel and the Palestinian territories next week, Meloni added.

UNIFIL, a United Nations mission of about 9,500 troops of various nationalities created following Israel’s 1978 invasion of Lebanon, has accused the Israeli military of “deliberately” firing on its positions.

Meloni, whose country is the second-biggest contributor of UNIFIL peacekeepers, has condemned the attacks several times.

She spoke to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday when she “reiterated the unacceptability of UNIFIL being attacked by Israeli armed forces”, her office said.

Speaking to the Senate on Tuesday, ahead of a summit in Brussels that she will attend from Wednesday to Friday, she said the attitude of the Israeli forces was “entirely unjustified”.

“In recent days, for the first time in a year of Israeli military actions, the positions of the Italian military contingent assigned to the UNIFIL mission of the United Nations have been hit by the Israeli army,” she said.

“Although there were no casualties or significant damage, I believe this cannot be considered acceptable.”

She demanded the security of the soldiers be guaranteed.

“We consider the attitude of the Israeli forces to be entirely unjustified, in addition to representing a blatant violation of what was established by United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701,” said Meloni.

“On the other hand, we cannot ignore the violation of the same resolution committed over the years by Hezbollah, which has worked to militarize the area under UNIFIL’s jurisdiction.”