World leaders have expressed outrage at Israel over the past week after outposts used by United Nations peacekeepers were hit amid the ongoing conflict between Hezbollah and Israel.
Since Israel launched its ground offensive after a year of attacks by Hezbollah, the peacekeeping force — known as the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) — reported several incidents in which peacekeepers were injured.
In one incident, a fire from an IDF tank hit a UNIFIL observation tower, injuring two peacekeepers who fell from a height.
In another incident, the entrance to a UNIFIL bunker was hit by IDF gunfire. The peacekeeping body also claimed that the Israeli military has shot at its cameras, among other complaints.
The incidents have sparked condemnation from around the globe, with world leaders demanding that Israel work harder to keep peacekeeping forces safe. Meanwhile, the IDF and Israeli officials have called on UNIFIL to temporarily evacuate the area due to the intensive fighting taking place.
What is UNIFIL?
Throughout the 1970s, Palestinian terrorist groups began setting up shop in southern Lebanon, using the country as a base to launch attacks against Israeli civilians. These groups formed a “state-within-a-state,” essentially governing themselves while attacking Israelis. They caused so much instability in Lebanon that a civil war erupted.
After a series of deadly attacks in 1978, Israel invaded Lebanon to combat the threat posed by these Palestinian groups. Within just a few days, the U.N. Security Council issued two resolutions (425 and 426) demanding Israel withdraw from the area. As part of these resolutions, the U.N.S.C. established a new peacekeeping force, UNIFIL.
UNIFIL was given three main goals as part of its mandate: (1) To ensure Israel withdrew from southern Lebanon, (2) to restore peace in the area, and (3) to help the Lebanese government restore control over the areas Palestinian terrorist groups had taken over.
Over the years, UNIFIL’s mandate has been adjusted due to several events, including the First Lebanon War in 1982 — when Israel invaded again after Palestinian groups in Lebanon continued their attacks — and the Second Lebanon War in 2006 — when Israel invaded after a deadly attack and kidnapping operation by Hezbollah.
Today, UNIFIL has several main goals, which were most recently updated by Security Council Resolution 1701 in 2006:
- Ensuring the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah completely ends.
- Supporting the official Lebanese Army in southern Lebanon.
- Helping ensure humanitarian access to civilians in southern Lebanon.
- Helping the Lebanese establish complete control over southern Lebanon, including by disarming any groups outside of Lebanese government forces.
- Helping the Lebanese government prevent the smuggling of weapons into the country.
Peacekeeping is easier said than done
As part of Resolution 1701, UNIFIL was authorized to take “all necessary action” it deems “within its capabilities” to ensure that southern Lebanon isn’t used for “hostile activities of any kind” to resist attempts to block the group from carrying out its duties and to protect civilians.
The problem is that the U.N. has determined that UNIFIL does not have the capability to take such action without receiving an explicit request from the Lebanese government to do so. In effect, UNIFIL is not actually authorized to take “all necessary action.”
In 2006, Kofi Annan, the secretary general of the U.N. at the time, explained that UNIFIL would not be allowed to work to disarm Hezbollah or even to intercept weapons smuggling headed for the terrorist group unless it received an explicit request from the Lebanese government. No such request has ever been made despite it being required by Resolution 1701.
This system has led to most of Resolution 1701 remaining unfulfilled. The Lebanese Army is unable to disarm Hezbollah and restore government control over southern Lebanon on its own, and the international peacekeeping force established to help the Lebanese Army achieve this goal isn’t authorized to do much to help either.
In periodic reports to the U.N., UNIFIL has also repeatedly noted that both Hezbollah and the Lebanese government have blocked it from entering areas it has a mandate to monitor. This included areas that Hezbollah used to launch several attacks against Israel. This means that beyond being unable to comply with Resolution 1701, UNIFIL can’t even correctly monitor violations of the resolution.
However, while UNIFIL has been blocked from confronting Hezbollah, it has confronted Israeli forces in the past.
In September 2006, UNIFIL sent tanks to block the IDF from operating against Hezbollah, and just a month later, a UNIFIL commander threatened to use military force against Israeli aircraft flying over Lebanon to monitor Hezbollah.
Hezbollah infrastructure has been found next to UNIFIL bases
Since Israel launched ground operations in Lebanon at the beginning of October, Israeli forces have found several Hezbollah bunkers, tunnel entrances, and weapons stockpiles near UNIFIL bases. Some of the findings were located at sites with a direct line of sight to nearby UNIFIL watchtowers.
The findings have raised questions about why this Hezbollah military infrastructure, located so close to UNIFIL forces, remained unreported over the years.
According to the IDF, between September and October, about 25 rockets and missiles were launched by Hezbollah from near UNIFIL posts. One of these attacks resulted in the deaths of two IDF soldiers.
U.N. peacekeepers and IDF are at odds
Amid Israel’s ground operation against Hezbollah, there have been several incidents in which UNIFIL bases and forces were caught in the crossfire.
On Friday, UNIFIL said explosions near its headquarters injured two peacekeepers. The IDF clarified that the incident occurred when soldiers fired at an immediate threat posed to them, located about 50 meters from the UNIFIL post.
In another incident on Sunday, UNIFIL reported that two IDF tanks “forcibly entered” one of its posts in southern Lebanon without further clarification. UNIFIL accused the IDF of endangering its peacekeeping forces.
The IDF clarified later in the day that the tanks had been working to evacuate soldiers who were wounded by a Hezbollah anti-tank missile attack nearby. As the soldiers were being evacuated, Hezbollah continued attacking them, and they were forced back toward the UNIFIL post.
As soon as the attacks ended and the wounded soldiers were evacuated, the tanks left the post. The IDF said it maintained coordination with UNIFIL throughout the incident and that no danger was posed to UNIFIL forces.
Before launching its ground operation, the IDF asked UNIFIL to move its forces five kilometers away from the border to avoid being stuck in the middle of a combat zone. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has reiterated that request several times, accusing Hezbollah of using UNIFIL as human shields.
Despite the calls by the IDF and Netanyahu, Jean-Pierre Lacroix, the U.N.’s Under-Secretary-General for Peace Operations, stressed on Monday that UNIFIL would stay in all its positions.
Lacroix added that UNIFIL and Israeli authorities were still in regular contact. He reiterated that UNIFIL could only “support” Lebanon and Israel in implementing Resolution 1701, but could not act on its own to enforce or implement the resolution. Lacroix did not address complaints about UNIFIL’s apparent failure to report many of Hezbollah’s violations of the resolution.
International outrage targets Israel after UNIFIL incidents
World leaders have condemned the incidents affecting UNIFIL positions, demanding answers from Israel.
On Monday, France, Germany, Italy, and the U.K. issued a joint statement demanding Israel ensure the safety and security of UNIFIL forces and condemning the IDF for the incidents in which U.N. personnel were injured.
On Sunday, the European Union’s foreign affairs chief, Josep Borrell, called the incidents “a grave violation of international law” and demanded that such attacks “stop immediately.”
Borrell stressed in further statements that only the UNSC could decide whether or not UNIFIL withdraws from southern Lebanon, dismissing complaints by some Israeli officials against U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres for not withdrawing the forces from the area.
The E.U. foreign affairs chief insisted that UNIFIL “plays a fundamental role in the stability of South Lebanon.”
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni told Netanyahu on Sunday that it was “unacceptable” that Israeli forces had attacked UNIFIL forces, stressing that the safety of UNIFIL personnel must be guaranteed.
Meloni announced on Tuesday that she would be visiting Lebanon on Friday, adding that she opposed requests by Israel for UNIFIL to withdraw from the combat zone and believed the incidents in which UNIFIL posts were hit were “unjustified.”
“I think that a withdrawal based on a unilateral request by Israel would be a serious mistake, it would undermine the credibility of the mission itself, the credibility of the United Nations,” said Meloni. “And I also think that our soldiers, as they have been precious all these years, will be precious again when we manage to obtain a ceasefire.”
Earlier this week, IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi assured his Italian counterpart, Luciano Portolano, that the IDF would examine the incidents in which UNIFIL forces were harmed.
