Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I wish to add some comments for the benefit of the few members present, who I am sure are concerned about media reports they have been receiving this morning regarding what is happening in southern Lebanon. There has been no official UNIFIL statement yet, but I understand that starting at about 11 a.m. Irish time this morning, there was quite significant activity in an area called the Shaaba Farms, on the eastern side of southern Lebanon, quite close to the Golan Heights. Six rockets were fired from the eastern sector of southern Lebanon, from a town called Ghajar. Subsequently, a rocket was fired at an Israeli Defence Force convoy and afterwards, a further five rockets were fired into Israel from the Shaaba Farms area. I am told Israel has retaliated and responded to that by firing 123 rounds of heavy artillery into the area. There is no official information in regard to casualties or injuries, but all we know is that it looks as if one peacekeeper has lost his life.

It has not been officially confirmed by UNIFIL that it was a Spanish soldier, but this is the area the Spanish control, so in all likelihood it is a Spanish soldier. As a country that is contributing significant troops to that UNIFIL mission, I wish to express my condolences to the Spanish troops in the area and to the Spanish Government.

This is not what we want to see happening in southern Lebanon. The suspicion is that it was in retaliation for a targeted strike last week on the Golan Heights when a Hezbollah commander was killed, but we do not know this for sure. This is a reminder of the dangerous, difficult and unstable environment in which our troops are operating, both on the Golan Heights and in southern Lebanon, where we have a significant presence in both UN missions. I am happy to report that our troops are about 30 km away from where this incident happened. In military speak, they were "in ground hog" this morning when this was happening, in other words, they were taking cover. Nobody was injured and everybody has been accounted for. There has not been any activity in the area where our troops are, but 30 km is not a great distance and, unfortunately, it looks as if there has been a fatality in the Spanish unit.