United Nations Humanitarian Aid Chief Martin Griffiths raised the alarm on Wednesday, warning that the spread of Israel’s war against Hamas to Lebanon will be “potentially apocalyptic.”
Speaking with reporters in Geneva, he described Lebanon as “the flashpoint beyond all flashpoints,” pointing to the south in particular. Griffiths said he had been discussing with colleagues in Jerusalem the prospects of what might happen there. “We are worried about the potential for further tragedy and deaths. It’s potentially apocalyptic,” he insisted.
Griffiths, whose term ends this week, warned that a war involving Lebanon “will draw in Syria… it will draw in others.” And “it will of course have an impact on Gaza; of course it will have an impact on the West Bank.” “It’s very alarming,” he concluded.
On Tuesday, the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) said three contractors returning home from the peacekeepers’ base in the south Lebanon village of Ramya “had their vehicle hit by gunfire,” reporting “no serious injuries.”
The UN’s peacekeeping chief, Jean-Pierre Lacroix, condemned the incident, saying there was an escalation on the border. “Certainly we condemn the attacks against those contractors in the same way as we condemn attacks against civilians (and) certainly attacks against our peacekeepers as well,” Lacroix said at a briefing at UN headquarters in New York.
“What we’ve seen over (…) the last week is, if not a full-fledged sort of escalation, certainly an increase, a gradual increase, in the intensity of these exchanges of fire.”
