Ireland’s troops in Lebanon are “excellent people” who are trained to deal with the risks they are facing, according to former soldier and TD Cathal Berry.

Around 300 Irish soldiers are currently stationed with the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) – and just over 30 of them are at an outpost that has seen heavy fighting between Israel and Hezbollah in recent days.

In a statement yesterday, UNIFIL said it was “deeply concerned” by the Israeli Defence Force’s activities near the UNP 6-52 outpost, adding that it had “repeatedly informed” the IDF about its concerns.

“This is an extremely dangerous development,” it said. “It is unacceptable to compromise the safety of UN peacekeepers carrying out their Security Council-mandated tasks.

“UNIFIL urgently reminds all actors of their obligations to protect UN personnel and property.”

This morning, family members of some of the soldiers stationed at UNP 6-52 outpost have called for them to be withdrawn – warning that some of them are still teenagers.

Speaking to the Irish Independent on condition of anonymity, one mother said the soldiers are “locked down and virtually powerless in the middle of a war zone”.

On The Pat Kenny Show this morning, Kildare South TD Cathal Berry, who was deployed overseas five times while a Defence Forces member, said he is always concerned about Irish soldiers abroad - but Ireland’s troops are well-trained and ready.

“I’m very concerned, as always, in light of recent events,” he said.

“I guess just one point of reassurance, The fighting seems to have moved away from that outpost called at the moment.

“It's moved further and deeper into Lebanon at the moment so that does help from that point of view.

“But I guess, moving around in that area is dangerous, so they're better off sitting tight at the moment - in the short term at least - having the air raid shelters, having the bunkers there rather than moving around, which would make them even more vulnerable.”

Tanaiste Micheal Martin inspecting Irish troops at Camp Shamrock in Lebanon, 4-19-24. Image: PA Images / Alamy Stock Photo

He said the UNIFIL troops are playing a crucial role as the international community’s eyes and ears in the region.

“They do have optics as well - remote optics - there to keep an eye on what's actually happening,” he said.

“It's good that they’re there because they can bear witness to what's happening and they are the eyes and ears of the international community.

“It's like everything; It’s like flying a commercial aircraft across the Atlantic at 33,000ft, it's inherently a dangerous, dangerous activity, but again, if you put an excellent captain in charge and an excellent crew on-board with the right technology, that risk profile reduces dramatically.

“So that's what we have at the moment. We have excellent people out there and that they can mitigate the risks accordingly.”

UNIFIL

The UNIFIL mission is made up of 10,000 troops from 50 countries around the world.

The mission did scale back and stage withdrawals from the area as fighting intensified between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006.