The UN peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon, known as UNIFIL, will remain there until 2026, with an exception for an “orderly and safe drawdown and withdrawal” starting in 2027, according to a UN Security Council vote on Thursday.
Israel and the United States have heavily pushed for UNIFIL’s closure, despite the fact that UNIFIL has not fulfilled its stated purpose. They claim that the organization has provided political cover for Hezbollah since the 2006 war.
In addition to its invasion of south Lebanon in October, Israel is still occupying at least five locations in Lebanon. Israeli troops should leave south Lebanon, according to a ceasefire agreement reached in November, but that has not yet been done.
What does the closure of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) mean for Israel’s border region? What information is necessary here.
What’s going on now?
South Lebanon will remain under UNIFIL’s control until December 31, 2026.
After that, it will have a year to leave its forces and give the Lebanese Army command of the area.
Given Israel’s disproportional position in terms of military might, technology, and US support, the development seems to favor Israel. Israel’s air force regularly violated Lebanon’s airspace with surveillance flyovers even before Hezbollah started fighting with Israel in October 2023.
There won’t be a global organization that can follow these violations now that UNIFIL has been discontinued.
Andrea Tenenti, a UNIFIL spokesman, questioned how Israeli forces’ continued support for UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which was put into effect at the end of the 2006 conflict.
If the [Israeli military] are still present in the south, how can they be deployed everywhere in the south? he inquired.
These are the things that are challenging to comprehend, so to put it another way.
Describe UNIFIL.
After Israel invaded southern Lebanon earlier that year, the United Nations Interim Force (UNIFIL) was established to oversee the withdrawal of Israeli forces. Israel would retake control of south Lebanon in 1982 before Hezbollah expelled them in 2000.
More than 10,000 peacekeepers from 47 nations make up UNIFIL, with Indonesia and Italy serving as the country’s top two.
It records violations of UN Resolution 1701 and monitors the entire border region.
Israel has focused its attacks on Naqoura, a coastal town with its headquarters in Naqoura. After the ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon in November 2024, not during fighting, according to Al Jazeera’s report earlier this year.
UNIFIL has 50 positions on Lebanese territory and 1, 060 square kilometers (409 square miles) of southern territory where it conducts its operations.
UNIFIL’s ability to use force
Only in self-defense or to defend armed civilians.
UNIFIL typically doesn’t fire on either Hezbollah or Israel because of its role as a peacekeeping force.
UNIFIL has recently used non-lethal force to defend itself in situations where its vehicles have been attacked.
What are Israelis’ opinions of UNIFIL?
They don’t support fans.
In the past, Israel has attacked UNIFIL’s peacekeepers, and UNIFIL accused Israel of intentionally attacking its peacekeepers during the conflict last year.
UNIFIL is a body with an international mandate and legitimacy that publishes reports on Israeli attacks and violations in southern Lebanon, in contrast to Gaza, where Palestinian voices are the only ones authorized to voice information about Israeli attacks or civilian killings.
The US sees UNIFIL as a waste of money because it doesn’t address Hezbollah’s influence in south Lebanon directly.
The US has increasingly adopted Israel’s position on UNIFIL under President Donald Trump.
The United States will support an extension of UNIFIL for the last time, according to Dorothy Shea, the acting US ambassador to the UN. The first letter in UNIFIL, “i,” denotes “interim.” The UNIFIL mission needs to come to an end.
Why is Hezbollah in trouble?
Hezbollah is perceived by Israel and the US as a “terrorist” organization.
In response to Israel’s occupation of Lebanon and the subsequent expulsion of the occupiers from south Lebanon, Hezbollah was established in the 1980s. Although Lebanon contributed the majority of the casualties and damage during the two parties’ inflicted war to a stalemate in 2006.
Israel saw Hezbollah as a primary threat and its weapons as a deterrent to military action between 2006 and last year. Israel’s military has attacked southern Lebanon and occasionally struck closer to Beirut without restraint since the ceasefire was reached, despite an assurance that hostilities would end.
Israel claims that it is attacking Hezbollah targets despite the fact that civilians were frequently killed in Israeli airstrikes last year and continue to do so.
How about Lebanon’s?
UNIFIL’s renewal was supported by the current Lebanese government.
Nawaf Salam, the prime minister, applauded the decision to renew UNIFIL’s mandate, stating that it “reaffirms the necessity of extending state control over all of its territory” and “reiterates the call for Israel to withdraw its forces from the five sites it continues to occupy.
With the exception of the Lebanese government, UNIFIL has a wider range of viewpoints in south Lebanon.
Many Lebanese residents have publicly criticized the peacekeepers’ presence, despite the fact that some do so.
In south Lebanon, armed civilians attacked a UN vehicle in May with axes and rods. Many southerners have expressed anger toward UNIFIL troops because many of them are unable to return to their homes in South Lebanon due to Israel’s destruction of their villages or because there are still Israeli-style assaults on them. Some people reportedly have a suspicion toward them.
Conflicts between Lebanese civilians and UNIFIL troops are documented on violent videos. After an argument, a local smacks a Finnish UNIFIL peacekeeper across the face in one.
Source: Aljazeera
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