A military camp in southern Lebanon where Maltese peacekeeping soldiers are based has been struck by a rocket.
The seven AFM soldiers stationed at Camp Shamrock are safe and unharmed, a spokesperson told Times of Malta.
“Yesterday, at around 1610 hrs, a misfire from north of the blue line led to an unexploded ordnance landing within the Irish compound,” she said.
“This ordnance was immediately detonated. Another unexploded ordnance, located 20 metres outside the compound, has also been safely detonated. The area is now secure.”
The UNIFIL (United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon) base is an Irish camp located a short distance from the Israeli border and also has soldiers from other countries, including Malta and Poland.
No one was injured in the incident. The Irish Defence Forces said the rocket was of a make associated with Hezbollah.
The soldiers, led by Lieutenant Katrin Abela, have been stationed in Camp Shamrock since May.
The strike was confirmed on Thursday morning by Defence Forces Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Seán Clancy, who said an initial investigation indicated the device was a Katyusha rocket, which is developed in Russia and commonly used by Hezbollah.
Clancy also said the rocket appeared to be fired from the north towards Israel and that there is an ongoing investigation to determine whether the explosive had been intercepted and shot down by the Israeli air defence system before landing in the camp.
Israel’s ambassador to Malta Ze’ev Boker has said that Israeli troops are trying their best to guarantee the safety of Maltese soldiers and others at the peacekeeping mission.
“Our message to our Maltese high-level counterparts [was] Israel will do its best to assure the safety of Maltese soldiers in southern Lebanon,” he said in a Times of Malta interview.
“We are trying our best not to target the Maltese, Irish or other nations that are there; we are friends of them, and we are not looking at them as our challengers... We are doing our best to see there will be no damage, no injury, to the UN soldiers in Lebanon.”
There are around 350 soldiers currently deployed with Unifil carrying out peacekeeping duties.