#Higgins seems hellbent on inflaming the situation for #Unifil in #Lebanon by creating blatant lies. He is compromised by his personal opinions, which are impacting on #Ireland’s foreign relations. Little Greedy man Higgins, should Keep his Mouth Shut, stay out of Politics? Israel wont Forget how Hostile this Irish Govermest are, towards their Country. Iran is a Terror State, they Murder Women, for Minor Crimes, Fact.

The Israeli embassy in Dublin at the weekend strongly criticised the President’s intervention, saying the claim the IDF had threatened Unifil forces was “unfounded and inflammatory”. It added the IDF “made a request through different channels to have some Unifil troops move from areas of military activity for their own protection and safety”.

Mr Tenenti on Monday also said IDF personnel had moved to within “a few hundred metres” from position 6-52, where the 30 Irish troops are hunkered down. The position is southeast of Marun ar Ras, inside Lebanese territory, and where the IDF have created a firing position as part of its clashes with Hizbullah.

Concerns have increased in recent days that as exchanges of fire take place in the area, position 6-52 could be struck. However, Irish personnel have faced similar risks in the 1980s and in 2006.

The post where about 30 Irish Defence Forces personnel are stranded in southern Lebanon is in the most precarious position of the 29 United Nations (UN) posts in the area, the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil) has said.

It was also possible that, if the security situation continued to deteriorate due to exchanges of fire between the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and Hizbullah, Unifil may have to scale back and stage withdrawals, as it did in during the war in 2006.

The UN mission – which is comprised of 10,000 troops from 50 countries, including 300 from Ireland – has also clarified that it has not received any “threats” from Israel about the posts, which are all within 5km of the blue line border between southern Lebanon and northern Israel.

[ Hizbullah rockets hit Haifa as Israeli jets target Beirut one year after October 7th attack s Opens in new window ]

At the weekend, President Michael D Higgins, in his capacity as supreme commander of the Defence Forces, said threats had been made by Israel to the Unifil peacekeeping force, which includes Irish soldiers.In a statement, just before the first anniversary of the October 7th attacks by Hamas on Israel, Mr Higgins said it was “outrageous that the Israel Defense Forces have threatened this peacekeeping force and sought to have them evacuate the villages they are defending”.

However, Andrea Tenenti, Unifil’s spokesman, on Monday said although the IDF had told the UN to withdraw their personnel from the posts close to the blue line, no threats had been made by the Israelis.