UN Security Council meets in emergency session on Lebanon

UNITED NATIONS, Oct. 11 (Xinhua) — The United Nations (UN) Security Council met in an emergency session on Lebanon on Thursday, following the firing of Israeli forces on UN peacekeepers in Lebanon earlier in the day.
“The conflict in Lebanon, coupled with intensified strikes in Syria and the raging violence in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, points to a region dangerously teetering on the brink of an all-out war,” said Rosemary DiCarlo, the UN under-secretary-general for political and peacebuilding affairs.
Recent developments in Lebanon, with intensified exchanges of fire between Hezbollah and the Israel Defense Forces and Israel’s ground operations in Lebanon, have created a “humanitarian emergency,” she said.
Jean-Pierre Lacroix, the UN under-secretary-general for peace operations, said Israel’s ground operations and intense air bombardment across Lebanon have left much of southern Lebanon now uninhabited and increasingly uninhabitable.
“The safety and security of peacekeepers is now increasingly in jeopardy,” he said.
Lebanon’s representative said Israel’s attempt to invade his country violated the UN Charter and resolution 1701, and called on the council to condemn the act and adopt a resolution to end it.
Israel’s delegate said that Israel would continue its operation to degrade Hezbollah’s capabilities and diminish its “terror network” in southern Lebanon. ■