Neutral UN Agencies in the Middle East

"We regret the harm to UNIFIL soldiers, and we are doing our utmost to prevent such harm."

"But the simplest and most obvious way to ensure this, is simply to withdraw them from the danger zone." 

"It is time for you [UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres], to withdraw UNIFIL from Hezbollah strongholds and from the areas of combat."

"The IDF has repeatedly asked for this, and has been met with repeated refusals, all aimed at providing a human shield to Hezbollah terrorists."

"Your refusal to evacuate the UNIFIL soldiers makes them hostages of Hezbollah. This endangers both them and the lives of our soldiers."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

Vehicles of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) patrol in Marjayoun in southern Lebanon amid the ongoing war between terror group Hezbollah and Israel, October 11, 2024. (AFP)

 

UN Security Council Resolutions 1559 and 1701 tasked the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) in 1978 to the critical role of maintaining peace between Israel and Lebanon with UNIFIL set by mandate to monitor and prevent hostilities from breaking out into active conflict. Hezbollah, the Shi'ite militia recognized as a terrorist group, had established itself in southern Lebanon as a challenge to the legitimate, albeit weak and fractured Lebanese government. Its self-appointed role was to obey its masters in Iran as a proxy militia of the terrorist mold in helping the Islamic Republic in its mission to destroy Israel.

Hezbollah was ordered by the United Nations under UNIFIL peacekeepers to surrender its weapons, leaving only the Lebanese military to carry and use weapons. Hezbollah never did surrender its weapons; the Lebanese military was too weak to do anything about it and UNIFIL was too uncertain to react. Since then, Hezbollah has been provided with vast stockpiles of weapons by Iran slipping them by the deliberately unobservant UNIFIL troops, aware of the armaments being provided by Hezbollah, for one purpose, to eventually seek to destroy Israel.

UNIFIL was obviously in no position given its clear abandonment of its orders to disarm Hezbollah and ensure there was no armed presence south of the Litani river. From its guard towers it was easily able to observe illicit, threatening activities, including tunnel infrastructure and weapons depots being methodically built over time, when its mandate schooled them to put a stop to any such actions. Hezbollah's constant bombardment with rockets of northern Israel from Hezbollah's perches in southern Lebanon continually breached Israel's  sovereign territory and led to the forced evacuation of some 60,000 Israelis.

 

When the IDF was finally ordered to seriously respond to the daily multiple shelling, and engage in some limited ground invasions they discovered the  reality of what had been assumed for decades; Hezbollah had assumed control of a vast shipment of military infrastructure over the years. The IDF discovered hundreds of weapons caches, tunnel shafts and underground command centres mere metres from the border with Israel. Also uncovered was an 800-square metre underground base used as a command centre.

 

Spanish peacekeepers of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) coordinate their patrol with the Lebanese Military Police, in Marjayoun in south Lebanon on October 8, 2024. (AFP)

 

It would not have been remotely possible for the UNIFIL personnel to overlook extensive tunnel networks, military bases and caches of weaponry, leaving the impression that an extensive network of tunnels, military bases and weapons caches were built under the watchful eye of a peacekeeping force meant to prevent such actions; an impression that reflects a reality. While tasked with ensuring security, the international peacekeeping force has been privy to outlawed activities taking place directly in their eyesight and with total impunity. Like its sister agency UNRWA which also sees no evil under its mandate, it demonstrate the sham that these UN agencies represent.

A Hamas central headquarters was located in the basement of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, its schools used as weapons depots, its rocket launchers placed within crowded civilian areas in Gaza. It was the discovery that UNRWA staff included hundreds who were also members of terrorist groups, some of whom had taken part in the October 7 massacre in southern Israel.That the UN system, its agencies and international courts were selectively weaponized against Israel became abundantly clear. 

 

Hezbollah has been permitted by UNIFIL to make use of its outposts. More recently, an Israeli tank, coming under direct fire from Hezbollah, attempted to seek cover to protect its crew and other Israeli soldiers when, backing up in tight circumstances, inadvertently backed into a UNIFIL post and he UN body promptly charged Israel with deliberately firing on its personnel. When charged by Israel for neglecting its duty in preventing Hezbollah from firing across the border into Israel, UNIFIL responded by saying that the terror group's building of tunnels and weapons depots took place on 'private property', taking the issue out of their hands.

 

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   Alma