Does UNIFIL actually want Hezbollah out of southern Lebanon?

The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) has long struggled to enforce United Nations Security Council (UNSC) Resolution 1701, adopted in 2006, which aimed to prevent Hezbollah’s military buildup in southern Lebanon.

Over the years, Israel has repeatedly urged UNIFIL to provide robust enforcement, citing evidence of Hezbollah’s military-terrorist entrenchment in the region. UNIFIL has consistently deflected responsibility, maintaining that the task of enforcement rests with the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF), while its role is to support the LAF in this mission and to provide humanitarian assistance to local civilians. The LAF, for its part, has increasingly been infiltrated by Hezbollah.

Recent footage released by the Israel Defense Forces from its operations in southern Lebanon has revealed a frightening fact: Not only has UNIFIL failed to even monitor Hezbollah’s massive arms buildup; Hezbollah had, in fact, turned open forested areas and southern Lebanese villages into an invasion staging ground, complete with monstrous amounts of weapons, in order to launch a future mass murder raid on northern Israel in the style of the October 7 attack. And no one was there to monitor it.

Worse yet, Hezbollah is now routinely using UNIFIL as a human shield, yet UNIFIL is refusing to leave the conflict zone, posing a serious threat to IDF operations and Israeli efforts to protect the people of northern Israel.

A key problem lies in the interpretation of Resolution 1701. This resolution can be read in different ways, but the bottom line is that neither UNIFIL nor the LAF have enforced its stipulations.

UNIFIL, upon realizing that any action it took resembling enforcement or movement in Hezbollah-dominated areas would put its soldiers’ lives at risk, began to prioritize humanitarian assistance over its primary military mission. UNIFIL, which has grown from 2,500 to 10,000 soldiers over the years, justified its approach by citing legal concerns. According to the force, it lacked the authority to enter “private property” in Lebanese villages without a Lebanese judicial order. Despite this, there is no record of UNIFIL ever attempting to obtain such an order, further undermining its credibility.

In recent years, UNIFIL has also avoided entering large open areas in southern Lebanon, where Hezbollah has been laying military infrastructure. These open areas, unlike Gaza, provide vast expanses of land where Hezbollah operates without interference. UNIFIL has not patrolled between villages or in remote areas.

In January, the Alma Center produced maps documenting 26 Hezbollah military zones in open zones where Hezbollah has constructed its infrastructure without any UNIFIL interference.

This hesitation extended to Hezbollah’s military posts along the Israel-Lebanon border, including the construction of observation towers. Whenever UNIFIL patrols approached these areas, Hezbollah would threaten them, leading UNIFIL to retreat, as admitted in its own reports.

The reality on the ground changed dramatically when the IDF launched its ground operation into Lebanon on October 1, uncovering extensive Hezbollah military-terrorist infrastructure. This infrastructure, which had been allowed to flourish under UNIFIL’s watch, included tunnels, military outposts, and supply depots stocked with equipment for Hezbollah fighters.

The IDF found Hezbollah military operatives uniforms, bags, and motorcycles, ready to be used in a planned invasion of Israel. The level of Hezbollah’s military preparedness in southern Lebanon was truly alarming, with weapons caches and launching systems scattered across the region, echoing the patterns seen in Gaza. The threat to the residents of northern Israel was immediate – and massive.

During the current ground offensive, the IDF urged UNIFIL to withdraw from the area for its own safety, but UNIFIL refused, claiming that it was carrying out its mission. However, given the extent of Hezbollah’s entrenchment, it is clear that UNIFIL had not been fulfilling its mission to begin with. If UNIFIL’s real objective was to provide humanitarian assistance, such a large force is today totally unnecessary, since most of the civilian population has evacuated the area.

Moreover, UNIFIL’s refusal to relocate its forces has resulted in several incidents that have put IDF soldiers in danger.

Over the past two weeks, Israel has repeatedly called on UN peacekeepers to move five kilometers back from the Blue Line, the U.N.-mapped border between Lebanon and Israel, for their own safety.

On October 13, UNIFIL took to Twitter to report that peacekeepers stationed in Ramyah had observed three IDF platoons crossing the Blue Line. The irony of this statement cannot be overstated. Instead of reporting on Hezbollah’s illegal movements and activities over the years, UNIFIL has been reduced to broadcasting Israeli military movements, while Israel has had to enforce the very resolution that UNIFIL has utterly failed to enforce.

The following day, on October 14, the United Nations Security Council expressed “strong concern” after several UNIFIL positions in southern Lebanon came under fire amid clashes between the IDF and Hezbollah. The Security Council stressed that “U.N. peacekeepers and U.N. premises must never be the target of an attack” and called for full implementation of Resolution 1701, seemingly unaware of just how ironic this call is.

UNIFIL’s hesitance to enforce the resolution has not only allowed Hezbollah to thrive but has also endangered its own peacekeepers. Despite the IDF’s efforts to avoid harm to UNIFIL personnel, the chaotic nature of warfare cannot guarantee anyone’s safety in a combat zone or ensure that there will be no damage to UNIFIL infrastructure.

Hezbollah, meanwhile, has systematically and intentionally used UNIFIL positions as cover for firing on the IDF, including an October 6 shooting attack that killed two Israeli soldiers. The shooting occurred from next to a UNIFIL position, according to the IDF Spokesperson Unit. None of this appears to concern UNIFIL very much.

While the IDF has been cautious to avoid targeting UNIFIL, Hezbollah has shown no such restraint. A UNIFIL vehicle encountered gunfire in December 2022, resulting in the death of an Irish soldier. Hezbollah, which has waged a lengthy intimidation campaign against UNIFIL, denied direct involvement at the time but did accuse the vehicle of taking an “unusual route.”

UNIFIL soldiers have faced harassment and violence from Hezbollah sympathizers over the years, with their movements blocked by stone-throwing mobs.

In contrast to Hezbollah, the IDF has never viewed UNIFIL as an enemy. The IDF has consistently emphasized the need to avoid harming civilians and non-combatants, including UNIFIL personnel, and communicates with UNIFIL daily to get it to take shelter when the need arises. Nevertheless, the presence of 10,000 UNIFIL soldiers in southern Lebanon during the current conflict has complicated IDF operations and exposed Israel to unjustified international criticism that is divorced from the reality on the ground.

As Israel continues its operations in southern Lebanon, the question remains: Does UNIFIL even object to Hezbollah’s illegal presence in southern Lebanon? Does it plan to just continue to be a passive observer of Hezbollah’s blatant violations of UN Security Council Resolutions? Why is it silent as an Iranian-backed terror army uses such a large force, which has failed to keep any peace, as human shields?