Question 1

What is UNIFIL?

Accepted Answer

The U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon is a peacekeeping mission tasked by the U.N. Security Council with ensuring stability and security in southern Lebanon since Israel’s first invasion of, and withdrawal from, southern Lebanon in 1978. The area includes some of the traditional strongholds of Hezbollah, a Shiite Muslim militant organization backed by Iran. UNIFIL has more than 10,000 peacekeepers, coming from 50 countries. The largest contributors of troops are Indonesia (1,231), Italy (1,068), India (903), and Nepal, Ghana and Malaysia, each with more than 800. Spain, France, China and Ireland also have a significant presence. About a dozen countries contribute only one peacekeeper each, including Peru, Britain and Nigeria. UNIFIL operates in a 410-square-mile area defined by the Litani River in the north and the Blue Line — a temporarily negotiated border between Israel and Lebanon stretching 120 kilometers (about 75 miles) — in the south. Between those lines, UNIFIL has 50 positions and a headquarters in the southern Lebanese town of Naqoura. It also has about 800 civilian staff, both local and international, as well as a maritime task force along the Lebanese coastline. Seventeen percent of UNIFIL’s activities are jointly carried out with the Lebanese armed forces, according to UNIFIL. The peacekeeping force and Lebanese army “routinely coordinate activities, including foot and vehicle patrols, by day and by night.” “UNIFIL’s long-term objective is to gradually transfer responsibilities to Lebanese Armed Forces,” according to UNIFIL’s website. UNIFIL’s yearly budget is about half a billion dollars. Every U.N. member state is obligated to pay a share toward U.N. peacekeeping missions, including in Lebanon. The United States is the top provider of contributions to U.N. peacekeeping.

Question 2

Why was UNIFIL established?

Accepted Answer

In March 1978, the U.N. Security Council established an interim force to monitor Israel’s withdrawal from Lebanese territory after its week-long invasion of southern Lebanon. The first UNIFIL troops arrived only days later. They were tasked with confirming the withdrawal of Israeli forces, restoring peace and security, and assisting Lebanon’s government in ensuring the return of its effective authority in the area. Later, during Israel’s nearly two-decade occupation of southern Lebanon starting in 1982, UNIFIL remained. In 2000, after Israel again invaded and withdrew from Lebanon, the United Nations set the Blue Line, which unofficially demarcates Lebanon from Israel. UNIFIL began to monitor that line. After the month-long Israel-Hezbollah war in 2006, UNIFIL’s mandate expanded with U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701. The United Nations directed it “to take all necessary action in areas of deployment of its forces and as it deems within its capabilities, to ensure that its area of operations is not utilized for hostile activities of any kind.” It also helped the Lebanese government secure the border to prevent the illegal entry of arms.

Question 3

What has UNIFIL been doing in the current conflict?

Accepted Answer

Before the beginning of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah last October, UNIFIL was monitoring a cease-fire between Lebanon and Israel that had mostly held since 2006. It monitored border violations. It also had a formal mediation mechanism, which brought Israeli and Lebanese military officials into a room with UNIFIL. But after Hezbollah launched rockets toward Israel on Oct. 8, 2023, in support of Hamas, the force’s role shifted. Now, the peacekeepers are patrolling a battlefront. Projectiles are launched back and forth daily. It still works to de-escalate tensions by conveying messages between the Lebanese and Israeli militaries, but the formal mediation mechanism has been suspended. Confrontations between Israeli and U.N. forces have increased. As Israeli troops invaded southern Lebanon this month, the IDF ordered the United Nations to evacuate its bases near the border. But Andrea Tenenti, UNIFIL spokesman in Beirut, said the vague instructions did not specify which of the force’s 50 positions should be vacated. “We decided we need to continue to fly the U.N. flag,” Tenenti said. “This is our mandate, and although that mandate has been heavily challenged, it is important to send the signal that we are staying.”

Question 4

What danger do U.N. peacekeepers face in Lebanon?

Accepted Answer

In September, a UNIFIL contract worker was killed in a strike on his car in Naqoura. A barber who worked with UNIFIL’s Spanish contingent was also injured by Israeli sniper fire. In the past week, direct clashes have increased. Israeli forces fired at three U.N. positions in the south of Lebanon within one day, injuring two peacekeepers when a tank fired at their position, the United Nations said on Oct. 10. The following day, the Israel Defense Forces and the United Nations said two other peacekeepers were injured in another set of explosions. On Sunday, UNIFIL said two IDF tanks “forcibly entered” a U.N. position in southern Lebanon, destroying a main gate. “For the fourth time in as many days, we remind the IDF and all actors of their obligations to ensure the safety and security of UN personnel and property and to respect the inviolability of UN premises,” UNIFIL added. The Israeli military said it was in regular contact with UNIFIL and had warned peacekeepers to shelter during Israeli operations in the area. UNIFIL forces are “increasingly in jeopardy,” U.N. peacekeeping chief Jean-Pierre Lacroix told the Security Council after the reports, criticizing both Hezbollah and Israeli forces for establishing “military installations in the vicinity of U.N. positions.” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday appealed to U.N. Secretary General António Guterres in a video statement to withdraw UNIFIL from Hezbollah strongholds. Netanyahu said UNIFIL’s refusal to evacuate “has the effect of providing Hezbollah terrorists with human shields” and has “turned [UNIFIL personnel] into hostages of Hezbollah.”

Question 5

What are the criticisms of UNIFIL?

Accepted Answer

Israeli officials have long criticized UNIFIL for ineffectively demilitarizing the area. Despite the mission’s presence, Hezbollah has built up its military presence and stockpiled weapons near the border with Israel. In 2020, the IDF’s chief of the general staff, Lt. Gen. Aviv Kohavi, said UNIFIL’s enforcement power has been “completely hollowed out” and “does not deter Hezbollah.” Last week, David Mencer, spokesperson for Israel’s National Public Diplomacy Directorate, called the mission “an abject failure.” Its “purpose was to ensure that Hezbollah did not exist between the Litani River and our southern border,” he added. “They’ve never fulfilled that task.” On Oct. 8, one year after the start of the war, Aroldo Lázaro, UNIFIL’s head of mission, and Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, the U.N. special coordinator for Lebanon, said in a joint statement that its “repeated appeals for restraint … a return to the cessation of hostilities, and a political process anchored in the implementation” of Resolution 1701 have gone “unheeded.” They added that a negotiated solution is the “only pathway” to restore security and stability on both sides of the border. In the current conflict, UNIFIL officials have admitted they could do little to stop all-out war. “We are not acting against anyone. But if UNIFIL wasn’t here, I am very sure the situation will escalate,” said Spanish Lt. Col. José Irisarri, who last month likened UNIFIL’s current role to being a buffer. “No one will have a real barrier to stop.” Kareem Fahim and Abbie Cheeseman contributed to this report.

What is UNIFIL, the U.N. peacekeeping force in Lebanon?

The U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon has been patrolling the Israel-Lebanon border for more than 45 years.