Israeli officials are allegedly boycotting a UN official in Lebanon after he wrote a report criticising the country's response to a border incursion by Palestinians protesters in May. Media in Israel reported on Wednesday that the government had cancelled a visit and cut ties with Michael Williams, UN special co-ordinator for Lebanon, in response to the report.
The Lebanese Armed Forces said seven people died and 111 were injured in the protest on the anniversary of what Palestinians refer to as the Nakba or "catastrophe", their term for the founding of the Israeli state in 1948. The incident took place near the border village of Maroun el-Rass and was the deadliest in the area since the Israeli-Hezbollah war in 2006.
The leaked confidential UN report criticises the Israeli army for using disproportionate force by firing on protesters. On Wednesday, Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, accused Israeli soldiers of using excessive force during the May 15 incident by firing live ammunition at unarmed Lebanese demonstrators trying to breach a border fence.
"The firing of live ammunition by the Israeli Defence Forces across the Blue Line against the demonstrators, which resulted in the loss of civilian life and a significant number of casualties, constituted a violation of
resolution 1701 and was not commensurate to the threat to Israeli soldiers," Ban said.
A preliminary report by the UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon also accused the demonstrators, who threw stones and petrol bombs and tried to bring down a fence, of carrying out "a provocative and violent act," Ban said.