UN warns of ‘wider conflict’ in region after Majdal Shams incident

Beirut - Ma'an - The United Nations missions and the UNIFIL peacekeeping forces in Lebanon warned on Sunday of the outbreak of "a wider conflict between Israel and Hezbollah that could plunge the region into disaster," against the backdrop of the killing of 12 people in the town of Majdal Shams in the occupied Syrian Golan. This came in a joint statement by the United Nations Special Coordinator for Lebanon, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, and the Head of the UNIFIL Mission and its Commander-in-Chief, General Aroldo Lazaro. In the statement, the two parties condemned "the killing of civilians, including young children and teenagers, in Majdal Shams," and stressed the need to "protect civilians at all times," urging "the parties to exercise maximum restraint and put an end to the intense and ongoing exchange of fire, which could ignite a wider conflict that would plunge the entire region into an unimaginable catastrophe." The statement said that "UNIFIL and the Office of the United Nations Special Coordinator i n Lebanon are in contact with both Lebanon and Israel." Source: Maan News Agency