What Is The UNIFIL And Why Is Israel Even Targeting It?
Everything you need to know about the UN's interim peacekeeping forces in Lebanon.
Israel has been relentlessly attacking the UN's peacekeeping forces in Lebanon, but what is the peacekeeping force, and why is Israel even targeting it?
UNIFIL stands for the United Nations Interim Forces in Lebanon.
It was first established in 1978 to maintain peace after Israel began attacking Lebanon that year.
After Israel invaded Lebanon in 1982 and began occupying southern Lebanon, UNIFIL's role expanded to oversee Israeli forces eventual withdrawal from southern Lebanon in 2000,“maintain peace along the border" and help restore the Lebanese government authority.
It operates within a 120km line, known as the blue line, along the border between Lebanon and Israel that is not considered a formal border but rather a "line of withdrawal" .
However, after the July 2006 war in Lebanon, when Israel decided to invade southern Lebanon again, UNIFIL 's role expanded to include monitoring military activities between Israel and Lebanon, assisting the Lebanese Armed Forces and ensuring that the area remains free of armed groups, particularly Hezbollah.
At present, UNIFIL has about 10,000 troops from 46 countries, working to keep peace in southern Lebanon, where Hezbollah operates actively.
But why is Israel suddenly attacking UNIFIL now?
Since Israel launched its “limited, localized, and targeted” ground invasion into southern Lebanon on Sept. 30, it has directly attacked UNIFIL several times.
Just between Oct. 10 to Oct. 20, 2024, Israeli forces directly hit various UNIFIL sites at least six times, "deliberately" shooting, bombing and bulldozing UNIFIL's watchtowers and injuring at least five peacekeepers.
Israel claims that UNIFIL's presence is ineffective in controlling Hezbollah's military actions, according to Al Jazeera.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu later accused UNIFIL of providing a “human shields" to Hezbollah and called UNIFIL's peacekeepers as "hostages of Hezbollah".
He has also urged UNIFIL to evacuate peacekeepers from southern Lebanon for their safety, which UNIFIL has repeatedly refused.
UNIFIL said all of its troops made an unanimous decision to maintain their position along the blue line to "to try to bring back stability and peace" to the region.
Analysts say that Israel is "deliberately" and "intentionally" attacking UNIFIL to force it out of southern Lebanon, so Israel can regain control and cause "destruction" there, like it did in Gaza, according to Anadolu Agency.
Israel's attacks are also seen as part of its broader objective to create a demilitarized zone free from any international monitoring.
Deliberately attacking UN workers involved in peacekeeping operations is a war crime under international humanitarian law, also known as the rules of war.
You Might Also Be Interested In
Kassy Cho
Kassy Cho
Cherry Mohamed
