PHILIPPINE President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. on Wednesday thanked Israel for supposedly taking care of Filipinos amid its clashes with militant groups opposed to its occupation of Palestine.
“Israel’s swift assistance in ensuring their [Filipinos] safety, especially during these challenging times, means a great deal to us,” he said in a statement late on Wednesday, following a phone call with Israeli President Isaac Herzog.
Mr. Marcos did not fully disclose what he and Mr. Herzog had discussed during their phone call.
He nevertheless said Israel remains one of the Philippines’ “trusted bilateral partners in the Middle East region, citing “historic friendship that predates the establishment of the Israeli state.”
“We remain hopeful for a swift path to peace, and together, may we continue to build on the strong bonds between our nations.”
The Israeli military earlier this month launched a wave of air raids on southern Lebanon as Jerusalem marked the anniversary of Hamas attacks on Oct. 7, 2023.
Israel’s air raids and ground invasion of southern Lebanon were at neutralizing “Hezbollah targets” that it said were “immediate threat” to northern Israeli communities.
Hezbollah militants have shown resistance to Israeli forces amid the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.
The Lebanese health ministry said Israeli airstrikes across southern Lebanon and the capital Beirut killed 27 people on Wednesday, based on an Al Jazeera report.
The United Nations peacekeeping mission in Lebanon known as United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) said Israeli forces continued to fire at its watchtower in the south, amid growing international criticism of Israel’s attacks on UNIFIL peacekeepers over the past days.
“Yet again we see direct and apparently deliberate fire on a UNIFIL position,” the peacekeeping mission said in a statement on Wednesday.
“This morning, peacekeepers at a position near Kfar Kila observed an IDF Merkava tank firing at their watchtower,” it added. “Two cameras were destroyed, and the tower was damaged.”
UNIFIL on Sunday said Israeli troops “forcibly entered” its position near the village of Ramia with two tanks crossing the UN-mandated blue line and fired smoke rounds near peacekeepers.
The Philippines last month joined 123 other countries in favoring a United Nations resolution urging Israel to end its occupation of Palestinian territories within a year.
Israeli settlement activities involved the transfer of its nationals “into the occupied territories, the confiscation of land, the forced transfer of Palestinian civilians, including Bedouin families,” according to the November resolution.
The settlements also involved “the exploitation of natural resources, the fragmentation of territory and other actions against the Palestinian civilian population,” among other issues.
The Gaza Strip is one of the two territories occupied by Palestinians — the other being the West Bank, which the Israeli government has been trying to invade in recent years. The two areas, along with East Jerusalem, came under Israeli occupation after the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. Since the war, Israel has responded to Palestinians’ demand for a homeland through military force. — Kyle Aristophere T. Atienza