November 26, 2024
Over the past year, Hezbollah terrorists have launched near-daily rocket attacks into Israel in solidarity with Hamas terrorists who led the October 7, 2023 massacre of Israelis. As a result, more than 60,000 residents of northern Israel have fled their homes. Israel’s leaders have made it clear that the Jewish state will no longer tolerate Hezbollah’s incessant rocket attacks on Israeli civilians, like the one that murdered 12 Druze children in Madjal Shams in the Golan Heights.
Now there is a renewed interest in the 18-year-old United Nations Resolution 1701, which was intended to demilitarize the border between Israel and Lebanon.
For decades, the resolution’s goal of keeping the peace along the Israeli-Lebanese border has faced one critical obstacle: Hezbollah and its state sponsor Iran.
Here’s what you need to know about the history of Resolution 1701, the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), and more:
1. What is the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon?
The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) was established in 1978 by the UN Security Council following a defensive operation by Israel in southern Lebanon.
Made up of troops from dozens of countries, UNIFIL operates in a 410 square mile area between the UN-delineated Blue Line between Israel and Lebanon and the Litani River in southern Lebanon.
UNIFIL’s original mandate was to confirm the 1978 withdrawal of Israeli forces from Lebanon, restore international peace and security, and assist the Lebanese government in restoring its effective authority in Southern Lebanon and the entire country.
In 2000, the UN delineated the Blue Line, a 75-mile-long de-facto border between the two countries. UNIFIL troops are responsible for preventing border violations and securing peace in the area between the border and the Litani River.
After the 2006 conflict between Hezbollah and Israel, UNIFIL's mandate was expanded as part of UN Resolution 1701 to include monitoring the cessation of hostilities, supporting the Lebanese Armed Forces in southern Lebanon, and facilitating humanitarian access to civilians. UNIFIL is charged with operating in coordination with the Lebanese government to maintain peace and security along the Blue Line. However, Hezbollah’s repeated violations have prevented UNIFIL from fulfilling its mandate.
2. What is UN Resolution 1701?
Simply put, UN Resolution 1701 was intended to prevent further armed conflict along the Israeli-Lebanese border.
It was adopted in 2006 after Hezbollah terrorists attacked an Israeli patrol across the Lebanese-Israeli border, killing three soldiers, severely wounding two, and abducting two others who were later confirmed dead. This unprovoked attack sparked a large-scale conflict known as the Second Lebanon War.
The resolution called for Israel and Lebanon to end hostilities along the Blue Line.
It also required Hezbollah to disarm (which it never did) and prohibited the presence of armed militias in southern Lebanon, except for the Lebanese military and UN peacekeepers, while urging the international community to support Lebanon’s reconstruction and stability.
Since 2006, the resolution has been renewed annually, extending the mandate of UNIFIL and its peacekeeping mission along the border. However, the renewals, including the most recent one this past August, never condemn Hezbollah’s aggression against Israel despite efforts from the U.S. to include such condemnation.
3. How have Hezbollah and Iran undermined UN Resolution 1701 and UNIFIL?
Resolution 1701 (reaffirming the earlier Resolution 1559 from 2005) called for the disarmament and disbanding of militias and called for an embargo on the sale or supply of arms and related material to Lebanon, except as authorized by its government.
However, a false perception has been created that Hezbollah is made up of two separate organizations: a political wing, purportedly disconnected from its military one, that along with its allies, has gained significant political power in Lebanese parliamentary elections. In fact, Hezbollah has such a tight grip on the Lebanese government that, in the past two years, it has prevented the election of a new Lebanese president.
Meanwhile, Iran and Syria have continued their shipments of deadly weapons to Hezbollah, and since the 2006 hostilities, Hezbollah has increased its terrorist army more than tenfold, including in Southern Lebanon, across the region, and around the globe.
The 2006 resolution expanded UNIFIL to more than 10,000 troops.
To this day, Lebanon has not extended effective control over southern Lebanon, as the UN Security Council called upon it to do in 1978, 2002, 2003, and 2006.
Furthermore, because UNIFIL has been unable to enforce its mandate, Hezbollah has assembled manpower and munitions within striking range of northern Israel. That has resulted in near-daily attacks on northern Israel, displacing about 60,000 civilians from their homes.
4. What is Israel’s mission in southern Lebanon?
Since the Hamas-led attacks of October 7 left more than 1,200 dead and took 250 hostages in Gaza, Hezbollah has fired more than 12,400 rockets at Israel. About 25 of those rockets and missiles were launched from Hezbollah sites embedded near UNIFIL posts in southern Lebanon.
After a year of attempted diplomacy, Israel, in late September 2024, began conducting air strikes on Hezbollah strongholds within Lebanon. In addition, the IDF notified UNIFIL of its intention to undertake defensive ground incursions into Lebanon with the goal of eliminating weapons, tunnels and terrorists. The operation is limited in time and area.
On October 12, the IDF discovered a Hezbollah terror tunnel shaft, along with a cache of weapons and gear, approximately 200 yards from a UNIFIL outpost in southern Lebanon. The discovery further confirmed Hezbollah’s plan to launch an attack on Israelis similar in proportion to the October 7 massacre.
5. Is Israel targeting UNIFIL peacekeepers in southern Lebanon?
No. As Israel attempts to restore peace and security in the region by removing Hezbollah terrorists, UNIFIL peacekeepers are in increasing danger–Hezbollah terrorists have built their weapons and operations infrastructure close to UNIFIL positions–which is why Israel has repeatedly urged the UN to move them until a safe zone has been established free of heavily armed Hezbollah terrorists.
It bears mentioning that digging tunnels and building Hezbollah outposts is a visible and lengthy process. Unfortunately, UNIFIL did not report these efforts as they took place in dozens of locations all along the border.
Amid Israel’s defensive operations in southern Lebanon, the IDF has requested that UNIFIL peacekeepers withdraw from positions up to five kilometers from the Blue Line, which would include 29 UNIFIL positions in southern Lebanon. According to UNIFIL spokesperson Andrea Tenenti, UNIFIL has refused this decision.
Further, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had urged UNIFIL to evacuate out of harm’s way because Hezbollah is using them as human shields.
6. What needs to happen next in southern Lebanon?
UNIFIL has not been fulfilling its mandate for the past 18 years. As long as Hezbollah continues to operate with impunity, that will remain the case.
The UN Security Council should recognize that Hezbollah has fired thousands of missiles, anti-tank rockets, drones, and other weapons into Israel since October 8– and condemn it.
It is a terrorist organization that has perpetrated numerous attacks around the world. It is a proxy army for the Iranian regime, which abhors Israel’s very existence.
In light of the growing threat posed by Hezbollah, AJC has long called on the UNSC to ensure the implementation of its resolutions, in particular Resolution 1701. Now as Israel does what it needs to do to defend its people, AJC calls on UNIFIL and the international community to ensure that peacekeeping forces are not put at unnecessary risk.
Israel’s objective is to eliminate the threat posed by Hezbollah, and ensuring the security of its northern border should be a shared priority for all who seek lasting peace and stability in the region.
