Irish peacekeeping troops serving in southern Lebanon have been obliged to go to bunkers at least once a day, every day, over the past five days.
As first reported by RTÉ News, members of the 122nd Infantry Battalion have adopted the precautionary policy due to the spike in exchanges between the Israeli military and the Iranian backed Hezbollah militants.
A spokesman from the the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) said today that the situation has been "definitely concerning", ever since Hamas killed 1,400 civilians on 7 October and Israel responded with a fortnight of air strikes on Gaza, killing more than 4,600 Palestinians.
Addressing the knock-on effect in southern Lebanon, Andrea Tenenti said while things have been "tense and volatile", he did not see "a serious will to escalate the situation" by the parties to the conflict.
He added that some of the exchanges have been very localised, with the same locations being hit close to the blue line dividing the countries.
Israeli has evacuated thousands of Israeli residents who live within two kiliometres of the Lebanese border.
Earlier this month, the commanding officer of Irish troops in Lebanon, Lieutenant Colonel Cathal Keohane, said there was "no chance" of the soldiers being withdrawn from the area despite the recent upsurge in attacks.
Speaking on RTÉ's Six One, he said: "There is absolutely no chance that we are withdrawing. We are here to achieve the mission and we remain until the mission is achieved."
In a statement today, the Defence Forces said: "For precautionary reasons troops were in Ground Hog at least once daily from Wednesday - Sunday."