The Unifil base in Naqoura, in southern Lebanon, was not the target but a rocket launched by Hezbollah hit a logistics area where there were no soldiers at the time. An episode, military sources specify, was due to an incorrect calculation of the trajectory but which triggered the procedure envisaged in these cases: all the soldiers on the base entered the bunkers and then left when the alarm was cleared. An episode which however also raises the issue of security for the Italian soldiers employed in the Unifil mission in Lebanon, around a thousand of whom 100 are employed at the Naqoura base. «We didn’t need this to happen to be on alert – says the Minister of Defense Guido Crosetto We have been coordinating with the UN for days and there is a continuous evaluation that is done hour by hour. But if there were no security conditions for our soldiers, we would make the same assessments made for the contingent in Jericho.” In fact, today the carabinieri involved in the Italian training mission in Palestine (Miadit) returned from Jericho. “The situation is no longer calm,” Crosetto said yesterday, announcing the return of around 20 carabinieri involved in training members of the Palestinian Security Forces, the security forces of the Palestinian Interior Ministry, at the training center in Jericho.
“The situation has gradually become more difficult, so much so as to make it impossible to continue with our activities which were now reduced to a minimum and with the few present in the Jericho area”, reports a carabiniere who returned from Jericho to Pisa. «Movements in that territory were now difficult for everyone, even for us. Such a situation of instability had been created that our safety could not be guaranteed”, adds the carabiniere. Among the tasks of the mission were the teaching of police techniques, management of public order, investigative techniques, protection of cultural heritage and contribution to the creation of conditions for the stabilization of the Palestinian territories. Miadit was born in 2012 on the sidelines of the coordination table for the development of bilateral relations between Italy and the Palestinian Authority, during which the Palestinian Interior Minister asked for the support of the Carabinieri to train the Palestinian security forces. The request was positively accepted by the national political authority, which authorized the launch of a training mission of the Palestinian security forces in Jericho, by a ‘training unit’ of the Carabinieri, in two annual cycles of 12 weeks each . Now the security assessment, even if – as the head of Defense specifies – in constant coordination with the UN, will also be carried out for the Italian soldiers engaged in Lebanon. Military sources, however, specify that at the moment the evacuation of the base, the decision of which lies with the UN, is not foreseen.
Clearance of the Gaza Strip
Meanwhile, the Israeli army today began the eviction of the city of Sderot, located close to the Gaza Strip, which was the scene of brutality by Hamas commandos and which was repeatedly hit by rocket fire. ”This is not the time to stay in the city,” said Mayor Allon Davidi. Its 30 thousand inhabitants will have the right to stay in guesthouses at state expense, in safer places in Israel. According to the media, evacuation is not mandatory and those who deem it appropriate can remain in their homes. Israel will only launch “significant military operations” once civilians have left Gaza, a spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) told CNN. “The important thing to focus on is that we will only begin significant military operations when we see that civilians have left the area,” Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus said. “It’s really important that people in Gaza know that we were very, very generous with the time. We gave ample notice, more than 25 hours.” The Israeli army is hitting southern Lebanon again after the anti-tank missile launched from across the border. The military spokesman made this known.
The PA Health Ministry reported that the number of deaths in Israeli raids since October 7 in Gaza and the West Bank has risen to 2,384, while 10,250 have been injured.
In particular, writes the Palestinian agency Wafa, «2,329 people were killed in the Strip, most of whom were children and women, while the number of injured reached 9,042. In the West Bank, the number of deaths rose yesterday to 55, after the death yesterday of sixteen-year-old Muhammad Rifaat Adwan, in Tulkarem governorate, while the number of injured rose to over 1,200.” Meanwhile, the alarm sirens have sounded again in Tel Aviv.