Farhan Haq, deputy spokesman for UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, says the Israeli military obstructed peacekeepers with the UN force in southern Lebanon (Unifil) twice, Al Jazeera reports.

In one instance, south of the Lebanese town of al-Bayada, “a tank halted peacekeepers escorting the Lebanese Red Cross, pointing its main gun towards the convoy, and instructed them to leave the area”, Haq tells reporters. “The convoy was later able to proceed.”

The second incident saw an Israeli tank “briefly” block a Unifil patrol near Naqoura, Haq says.

“Such restrictions are inconsistent with the obligation to respect Unifil’s freedom of movement,” he added. “We call on all actors to fully respect this obligation.”

Haq also tells reporters that three mortar rounds fired by the Israeli military landed about 70 metres from a Unifil position near Rmeich, a village near the Lebanon-Israel border.