Senior UN peacekeeper deems Arab League's Gaza deployment call premature

25 May 2024 17:31

The United Nations peacekeeping chief argued against the latest calls for international troops to deploy in Gaza, Bloomberg reports.

He said the post-war state of affairs was too uncertain and that any operation would require agreement from Israel, which has been highly critical of the UN’s work in Palestinian territories.

Jean-Pierre Lacroix, undersecretary-general for peace operations, said in an interview Wednesday that he’s aware of demands for sending in so-called Blue Helmets, including last week by the Arab League, but cautioned it’s too early and the politics too fraught to consider the option at the moment.

“Nobody really knows what the day after in Gaza would look like,” Lacroix said. “We absolutely don’t know what the state of affairs would look like but obviously the parties — and that would certainly include Israel — would have to agree to such a proposition.”

The UN and its operations in Gaza have come under intense scrutiny by Israel since the Oct. 7 assault by Hamas, which killed some 1,200 people and still holds scores of hostages.

Israel has accused the UN’s main humanitarian organization in Gaza of being infiltrated by Hamas operatives — which the agency denies — and at the UN has dismissed criticism of its bombardment of the territory.

Lacroix also addressed the challenges the war in the Gaza Strip has created for 10,500 UN peacekeepers stationed in southern Lebanon. He said the Israel-Hamas war was having a “major impact” on the mission known as Unifil, which he described as a mediator between Israeli and Lebanese forces.

“The role of Unifil is critically important because Unifil is the only channel that can convey messages from one side to the other side, and that is critically important to avoid misunderstanding and also to bring about de-escalation when needed,” Lacroix said.

Caliber.Az

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