As Israel pushes into southern Lebanon with the aim of eliminating Hezbollah fighters and destroying the group’s bases, its forces are increasingly coming into contact with members of a United Nations force that has been in place there for decades with a mandate to maintain peace and security along the volatile border.
On Thursday, two peacekeepers from the currently 10,000-strong United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, or UNIFIL, were injured when an Israeli tank shell hit an observation tower near the "Blue Line” dividing Lebanon from Israel and the Golan Heights. The incident followed an Israeli warning for UNIFIL to relocate from areas Israel said were near Hezbollah positions used to launch rockets into northern Israel. UNIFIL refused to evacuate.
UNIFIL, in a statement on Thursday, said that its headquarters in Lebanon in the town of Naqoura and nearby peacekeeper positions “have been repeatedly hit” by Israeli tank fire. It said two peacekeepers were injured. And Friday, it said more explosions hit close to an observation tower, wounding two more personnel, but it didn’t blame Israel.
The conflict in Lebanon follows more than a year of fighting between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas — which, like Hezbollah, is backed by Iran — in the Gaza Strip. Hamas launched a surprise attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing about 1,200 people and taking at least 240 hostages, according to Israeli authorities. As Israel launched its military response in Gaza, Hezbollah militants began firing rockets at Israel in support of Hamas and the Palestinians. In recent weeks, the Israeli military has carried out an air and ground offensive in neighboring Lebanon, an escalation that has drawn alarm from the U.N.
Here are a few facts about UNIFIL and its mission:
Who makes up UNIFIL?
UNIFIL is made up of about 10,000 peacekeeping troops and other personnel from around 50 countries, mostly drawn from Indonesia, India, Ghana, Nepal, Italy, Malaysia, Spain, France, China and Ireland. The U.N. peacekeeping website does not list the United States among them.
When and why was it created?
UNIFIL was created by the U.N. Security Council in 1978 after Israel invaded neighboring Lebanon, following a deadly raid by Palestinian militants based in Lebanon across the border into Israel. Despite the name’s indication that it would be temporary, UNIFIL has become one the longest-serving peacekeeping missions in the world, as NPR's Jane Arraf reported. The Security Council called for Israel’s withdrawal and to help establish “territorial integrity, sovereignty and political independence of Lebanon within its internationally recognized boundaries.”
Israel again invaded Lebanon in 1982, kicking off a prolonged occupation until 2000.
Then in 2006, after a monthlong war between Israel and Hezbollah, a Shia Muslim militant group whose political wing is a major force in Lebanon, UNIFIL was enlarged and its mandate expanded. The force was tasked with helping Lebanon’s armed forces maintain a buffer between Israel and the so-called Blue Line at the Litani River, about 18 miles from the Israel-Lebanon border.
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UNIFIL’s specific mandate in southern Lebanon was to confirm the withdrawal of Israeli forces, restore peace and security in the border region and assist the Lebanese government in reestablishing control in the southern part of the country.
In the years since, however, the mission has gone beyond that mandate, according to David Schenker, a senior fellow at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy. “They are a primary economic driver in south Lebanon, purchasing supplies, helping the local economy, providing computers for classrooms, for Hezbollah's constituents in south Lebanon, building soccer fields, things that aren't actually included in their mandate, but things they do nonetheless,” he says.
UNIFIL’s rules of engagement allow the use of force only if necessary for self-defense or to carry out its duties.
Is this the first time that UNIFIL peacekeepers have come under fire?
No. Although exact figures are hard to come by, a number of UNIFIL peacekeepers have been killed in the line of duty. For example, last year, five men linked to Hezbollah were charged by a Lebanese military tribunal in the killing of an Irish U.N. peacekeeper. Another Irish peacekeeper was seriously wounded in the incident.
How effective has UNIFIL been?
Normally, UNIFIL plays a role in monitoring and reporting cease-fire violations, providing humanitarian assistance and helping to rebuild infrastructure in southern Lebanon that has been destroyed by decades of fighting. In the absence of direct diplomatic relations between Israel and Lebanon, the peacekeepers have also acted as a liaison of sorts between the two countries. Schenker says before the 2023 Hamas attack in Israel, UNIFIL would sit down about once a month with representatives of the Israeli and Lebanese militaries “to talk about issues of tension, trying to de-escalate, putting mechanisms in place to mediate between the two nominal authorities on the border.” The U.N. force does not communicate directly with Hezbollah, which is designated a terrorist organization by the United States and several other countries.
But UNIFIL has also been criticized for not doing a better job of monitoring and reporting of Hezbollah violations, allowing the group to remilitarize southern Lebanon, says Schenker, a U.S. diplomat who served in the administrations of Presidents George W. Bush and Donald Trump. The Lebanese government, which includes members of Hezbollah’s political wing, has also circumscribed where peacekeepers can operate, drawing a line around sensitive areas that “basically amount to Hezbollah operational bases in the south,” he says.
Jeffrey Feltman, the U.S. ambassador to Lebanon during the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah, says he doesn’t blame UNIFIL for its limited mandate, but does fault the mission for “its mealymouthed reporting on what Hezbollah was up to.”
That’s allowed Hezbollah to reoccupy areas of southern Lebanon that are supposed to be off-limits. As a result many Israelis are skeptical of UNIFIL, according to Paul Salem, vice president for international engagement for the Middle East Institute. Even so, he says “Israel was well aware that Hezbollah had built up capacities in the zone that it wasn't supposed to.”
And for a long time, the border remained relatively calm — until after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack in Israel, that is. “Israel coexisted with that situation and they figured that calm would be maintained long term, both with Hamas [in Gaza] and Hezbollah,” Salem says.
Last year’s Hamas attack and the multifront war that has resulted may have permanently changed that.
“There has to be something different about the way this war ends than in 2006,” Feltman says. “I don't think it will be a new [U.N.] resolution, but it can't be simply UNIFIL, because the Israelis won't accept that now.”
NPR's Michele Kelemen and Jane Arraf contributed to this report.
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