UN Security Council convenes emergency session on Lebanon

The United Nations (UN) Security Council met in an emergency session on Lebanon on Thursday after Israeli forces fired at UN peacekeepers in Lebanon earlier in the day. Two UN peacekeepers were injured from the Israeli attack, the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) said in a statement following the incident on Thursday.

"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 peace building 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 what it termed its "terror network" in southern Lebanon.

Meanwhile, Lebanon's Foreign Ministry condemned the Israeli attack on the UN peacekeepers in the country's south, with Lebanon's state-run National News Agency reporting a new attack on Friday. 

UN chief Antonio Guterres on Friday warned Israel there must be no repeat of the "intolerable" incident that wounded two UNIFIL peacekeeping soldiers.

"There was naturally a reaction from many sides in solidarity with the peacekeepers that were wounded and in telling Israel very clearly that this incident is intolerable and cannot be repeated," Guterres said after talks with Southeast Asian leaders at a summit in Laos.

(With input from agencies)