Casualties of The 2006 Lebanon War - United Nations

United Nations

UN personnel were subjected to dozens of attacks and near misses from both sides during the present conflict, most prominently the 25 July Israeli bombing of a UNTSO position, which killed four UNTSO unarmed observers (Austrian, Canadian, Chinese and Finnish). Diplomats familiar with the probe say that the strike was carried out with a precision-guided missile.

Secretary-General Kofi Annan said in a statement from Rome that he was " ... shocked and deeply distressed by the apparently deliberate targeting by Israeli Defence Forces." On 26 July 2006, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert phoned Kofi Annan and expressed his deep regret over the death of the four UN observers. He promised that Israel would thoroughly investigate the incident and would share the findings with Annan, but says he was taken aback by secretary general’s statement saying that the Israeli attack on the UN post was "apparently deliberate".

After the attack, Dan Gillerman, Israel's UN representative, said Israel would not allow the UN itself to participate in an investigation of the airstrike that killed the four UN observers.

Just before the end of bombing, on 14 August, the IDF targeted what it said was a Palestinian faction in the Ein el-Hilweh refugee camp in Saida. Two missiles were fired into a civilian residential area and killed UNRWA/UN staff member Abdel Saghir. Few days before two civilians were killed.