Israel’s attacks on UN peacekeepers draw international condemnation

Israel and the UN’s historically thorny relationship has become even more contentious amid the escalating fight between the Israeli military and Hezbollah, the powerful Iran-backed militant and political group in Lebanon.

The UN says that Israeli forces have fired on their peacekeepers in southern Lebanon several times in recent days and that at least five peacekeepers have been injured in the process.

On Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged UNIFIL, the UN’s peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon, to leave the area and get out of “harm’s way.” Netanyahu denies that Israel has deliberately targeted peacekeepers. UNIFIL, which is mandated to be in southern Lebanon by the UN Security Council, refuses to leave. Meanwhile, the UN on Sunday said that the Israeli military forcibly entered one of its positions in southern Lebanon, which Israel denies.

Tough gig. UNIFIL — the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon — was first established in 1978 to oversee Israel’s withdrawal from southern Lebanon following an invasion that same year. It’s made up of 10,000 personnel from 50 countries and patrols an area known as the Blue Line — a UN-designated line separating Lebanon from Israel and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

UNIFIL is charged with maintaining peace and security along the border between Israel and Lebanon, which is no easy task given the volatile history of the region. A 2006 UN resolution, tied to an Israel-Hezbollah war that year, expanded UNIFIL’s mission and called on it to “ensure that its area of operations is not utilized for hostile activities of any kind.”

The Israeli government and other critics of UNIFIL say it’s ineffective and hasn’t done a good enough job reporting on Hezbollah’s activities and build-up in southern Lebanon. Hezbollah has repeatedly fired on Israel from the area since last October amid the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, in a tit-for-tat that ultimately spiraled into the recent Israeli invasion of Lebanon atop escalating airstrikes across the country.

Israel’s criticism of UNIFIL does not appear to be landing with much of the international community, which is condemning the Jewish state for firing on peacekeepers.

UN chief António Guterres — who Israel recently declared persona non grata — has warned that attacks on peacekeepers could constitute war crimes, and President Joe Biden has called on Israel to stop firing on peacekeepers.

The UK, France, Germany, and Italy on Monday condemned “all threats to UNIFIL’s security,” and called for IDF attacks on peacekeepers to stop “immediately.” Similarly, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell on Monday said attacking UN troops is “completely unacceptable.”

We’ll be watching to see if Israel listens and adjusts course in Lebanon.