Since Israel first sent troops into Lebanon six weeks ago, it has not only fought with Hezbollah but also been engaged in a war of words—along with the odd actual military incident—with U.N. peacekeepers.
The U.N. peacekeeping mission in Lebanon accuses the Israeli military of violating international norms by deliberately targeting its troops.
Israel, in turn, says the UNIFIL peacekeepers are getting under its feet during a legitimate incursion it needs to undertake precisely because the U.N. has failed in its duty to disarm Hezbollah near the border.
U.N. peacekeeping troops, Israel says, have become human shields for terrorists.
Since Israel began a ground war against Hezbollah on Oct. 1, the U.N. has refused to withdraw its peacekeepers.
There has been more than one incident of the Israeli army hitting or coming close to peacekeepers, as the Israel Defense Force (IDF) fought with Hezbollah terrorists stationed very near U.N. bases.
It wasn’t clear immediately which side had fired the rocket.
In other incidents, the U.N. held the IDF responsible.
On Oct. 10, the U.N. mission said in a statement: “Two peacekeepers were injured after an IDF Merkava tank fired its weapon toward an observation tower at UNIFIL’s headquarters in Naquora, directly hitting it and causing them to fall.”
On Nov. 8, the U.N. condemned the IDF’s “deliberate and direct destruction” of its property as a “flagrant violation” of international law.
The IDF didn’t comment on the incident.
The U.N. has refused to move its forces to safer areas despite a plea from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Nov. 10.
“I want to directly address the U.N. Secretary-General from here,” Netanyahu said. “It is time to remove UNIFIL from Hezbollah’s strongholds and from the combat areas.”
The IDF, he said, had “repeatedly requested this, only to be met with refusal, a refusal aimed solely at providing Hezbollah terrorists with a human shield.
“Your refusal to evacuate UNIFIL soldiers turns them into hostages of Hezbollah. This endangers both them and the lives of our soldiers.
“We regret the harm caused to UNIFIL soldiers, and we are doing everything we can to prevent it. But the simplest and most obvious way to ensure their safety is to simply remove them from the danger zone.”
The use of human shields has been a point of controversy during the war beginning Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas invaded Israel, massacred 1,200 people, wounded thousands, and took 250 hostages.
Israel accuses both Hamas and Hezbollah of using human shields.
In Gaza, the IDF has repeatedly reported finding Hamas headquarters, bases, and weapons storage under or inside civilian buildings such as hospitals, schools, and mosques, often posting photos and videos of the installations.
They have reported the same about Hezbollah.
Plus, the army says, Hezbollah has not only stored elements of its vast rocket and missile inventory in civilian homes but adapted them—installing moveable walls on homes and garages—to move the rockets or even fire them from those positions.
The use of human shields is a war crime.
However, experts often qualify that by noting that endangering civilians, by going after the human-shielded terrorists, violates humanitarian law.
The IDF’s entanglement with UNIFIL has come as the army fought Hezbollah units based 200 meters or even closer to U.N. bases.
The army questions why UNIFIL allowed Hezbollah fortifications within plain sight and close to the Israeli frontier.
The U.N. resolutions that created and empowered UNIFIL, particularly Resolution 1701 from 2006, called for peacekeepers and the Lebanese army to be the sole military forces between the Lebanese border and the Litani River to the north.
But the area’s demilitarization has never been enforced.
UNIFIL was created in the late 1970s after Israel, responding to a Palestinian terror attack launched from Lebanon, invaded. Lebanon protested.
The Security Council voted to call for Israel’s withdrawal and established the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).
Its job was to confirm Israel’s withdrawal, restore international peace and security, and assist the Lebanese government in reestablishing its authority in the south.
There have been several military flare-ups since then, including in the 1980s and early 2000s.
It hardly mentions the Iran-backed Hezbollah, seen as the most powerful terrorist group in the Middle East with near-state status inside Lebanon.
The account stops at 2006—the year of a border war between Israel and Hezbollah.
Israeli military strategists point to Hezbollah’s rocketing Israel for more than a year since Oct. 8, 2023. Hezbollah has fired thousands of rockets, often more than 100 a day, at Israel in that time.
And they say that while the U.N. acknowledges the passage of Resolution 1701—which calls for Hezbollah to withdraw all forces north of the Litani River—it does not address its failure for the past two decades to enforce it.
The U.N. notes the resolution requires disarming all armed groups in Lebanon other than those of the Lebanese state and specifically creating “an area free of any armed personnel, assets, and weapons other than those of the Lebanese authorities and UNIFIL between the Blue Line [the 2000 cease-fire line with Israel] and the Litani River.”
“The lesson learned is that UNIFIL has been ineffective at best and supporting our enemies at worst,” Israeli strategist Elliot Chodoff, a retired IDF major who wrote the army’s tactical field manuals, told The Epoch Times.
“There were cases back in the ‘70s and ’80s when UNIFIL officers driving from Lebanon into Israel were found to have explosives in their cars that they were transporting to terrorists in the West Bank and Gaza,” he said.
“UNIFIL has allowed Hezbollah to fortify itself. It builds its structures beneath the eyes of UNIFIL inspectors, beneath U.N. posts,” Kobi Michael, a senior researcher for Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies, told The Epoch Times.
“They’re an obstacle from Israel’s point of view,” he said.
Hezbollah can “launch their rockets and operate military compounds knowing Israel has difficulty attacking [them] because of their closeness to UNIFIL posts.”
Michael said Guterres, the U.N. secretary-general, won’t pull out UNIFIL even temporarily to allow the IDF to “clean” the area.
“To the contrary, he insists on leaving the posts there to prevent the IDF from cleaning the area,” Michael said.
“In his mind, the continuing presence of UNIFIL posts prevents the IDF from expanding its mission to south Lebanon. This is his main goal.”
Guterres is responsible for enforcing UN Resolution 1701 but knows UNIFIL can’t stop Hezbollah or keep it from the border, Michael said.
“Instead he pressures Israel to stop the war and to distance itself from UNIFIL posts,” he said.
“UNIFIL has consistently deflected responsibility,” she wrote.
The peacekeepers said enforcement was the responsibility of the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF), while its role was to support the army and provide humanitarian assistance to local civilians.
UNIFIL, realizing its soldiers’ lives were at risk in trying to enforce a Hezbollah-free border zone, focused on the humanitarian mission, she said.
It quadrupled its force from 2,500 to 10,000 soldiers.
It had about 10,500 in April and is authorized for up to 13,000, according to its website.
