The Real Tragedy of Israel's Attacks on UN Peacekeepers in Lebanon

UNIFIL offered an off-ramp. Now they are the targets

Italian peacekeepers on patrol in south-west Lebanon. 08 April 2024. Photo by Pasqual Gorriz/UN. CC license

The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) is a unique UN peacekeeping mission in one key way. While over 50 countries contribute to the 10,000-strong force, the bulk of troops are from European countries, including several NATO allies. This is unusual for UN peacekeeping, in which most Blue Helmets hail from South Asian countries like Bangladesh, India, Nepal, and Pakistan, or African countries like Ghana and Rwanda. But not UNIFIL. This is the only mission in which the bulk of troops are European, including over 1,000 troops from Italy and several hundred each from France, Spain, Ireland, Greece, Austria, Finland, and Germany, among others.

This is not by accident.

While UNIFIL has technically been around since 1978, its current formation is the result of a 2006 agreement and Security Council resolution that followed a brief but destructive war between Israel and Hezbollah. As part of a cessation of hostilities agreement, UNIFIL was given an expanded mandate in southern Lebanon. The mission was to support the (very weak) Lebanese national army in establishing control in southern Lebanon and confirm the withdrawal of Hezbollah contingents further north, away from the Israeli border. This was all enshrined in Security Council Resolution 1701.

One of Israel’s conditions for agreeing to this deal, which was brokered by then-UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, was that the troops deployed to UNIFIL would come from Western countries with more sophisticated militaries, rather than being pulled from the developing world like most other peacekeeping missions. From Israel’s perspective at the time, this made sense. They needed confidence that UNIFIL would be empowered to fulfill its mandate (or at least the parts of it to which Israel agreed, like monitoring the withdrawal of Hezbollah from southern Lebanon).

Fast forward to October 2024, and it is clear that Israel now views these very same European peacekeepers as a nuisance that is preventing their war aims in Lebanon.

Over the last week, Israel has directly targeted UNIFIL positions. Several peacekeepers have been injured, but none killed—yet. By attacking these positions, outposts, and headquarters, Israel is undermining the principle of the inviolability of UN peacekeepers, that is: UN Blue Helmets who are deployed at the behest of the Security Council are not legitimate military targets.

Deeper still, diplomats have been feverishly working on a plan to de-escalate hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, the center of which is an expanded role for UNIFIL. The real tragedy of these ongoing attacks against UNIFIL is that they are undermining the one entity that can provide an off-ramp to further escalation in Lebanon and throughout the region. The path to de-escalation runs through UNIFIL. But for the moment, UNIFIL is, very literally, in the path of Israeli tanks.

There have been several incidents over the last ten days that suggest Israel is deliberately targeting UNIFIL positions in southern Lebanon.