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The UNIFIL Peacekeeping Force in Lebanon Is a Failure; the UN Should Disband It
Soldier stands guard next to poster with images of late Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah and late senior Hezbollah official Hashem Safieddine, at the entrance of Beirut’s southern suburbs in Lebanon, after a ceasefire between Israel and Iran-backed group Hezbollah took effect on Nov. 27, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Thaier Al-Sudani
The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) stretches the meaning of the word “interim.” Deployed in 1978 as a peacekeeping force, its “temporary” mandate has persisted for 47 years.
During this period, three major wars have erupted between Israel and militias in Lebanon, and UNIFIL has failed to pre-empt, prevent, or resolve any of them. Costing $500 million annually, UNIFIL is an ineffective expenditure. When the UN convenes to renew its mandate in August, it should disband the force permanently.
Without UNIFIL, Lebanon’s government would be compelled to take responsibility for its sovereignty. In 2006, UNIFIL’s mandate was expanded from 2,000 to 15,000 troops, with the expectation that the increased personnel and firepower would support the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) in deploying south of the Litani River and keeping the area free of Hezbollah and its weapons.
However, UNIFIL peaked at 10,000 troops and remained as ineffective as before. Since its inception, UNIFIL has not engaged outlaw forces in any firefights or law enforcement actions. Instead, it focused on searching for Hezbollah’s arms caches and reporting them to the LAF — an effort in which it consistently failed.
Hezbollah, Iran’s proxy militia, thwarted UNIFIL’s efforts by sending military-age men in civilian clothing to burn tires, block roads, and throw stones whenever UN peacekeepers approached arms depots. When confronted, UNIFIL personnel did not use force to proceed; they simply retreated to their bases. As a result, Hezbollah built tunnels with entrances near UNIFIL bases, exploiting the proximity to deter Israeli strikes due to the risk of harming UN personnel.
Disbanding UNIFIL would also force Lebanon’s government to engage directly with Israel. Lebanon absurdly refuses any direct talks — military or otherwise — with Israel. UNIFIL serves as a conduit, hosting officers from both sides at its coastal base in Naqoura, across the border from Israel’s Rosh Hanikra.
Even in these UN-mediated meetings, Lebanese officers childishly address the UN mediator rather than their Israeli counterparts, despite knowing the Israelis are present. The world should not spend $500 million a year to facilitate such immature behavior. Adversaries worldwide maintain hotlines for communication without implying normalization or recognition. Lebanon should do the same.
Dissolving UNIFIL would also increase pressure on Hezbollah. With UNIFIL doing little military work in south Lebanon, it has shifted to funding civilian projects, such as digging wells, purchasing generators, and building roads. These initiatives, funded by UNIFIL’s $500 million budget, indirectly support Hezbollah’s position. Without this funding, Hezbollah would face greater pressure to act responsibly, prioritize economic development for its supporters, and avoid conflict with Israel in favor of peace.
Critics, including some within the US government and foreign policy circles, oppose disbanding UNIFIL. They argue for a gradual drawdown, with a phase-out over three years. However, there is no logistical justification for such a prolonged timeline. The US withdrew 50,000 troops from Iraq in six months; withdrawing 10,000 lightly armed UNIFIL personnel is a simpler task. All that is needed is the political will to end this outdated mission.
In 1978, Israel invaded south Lebanon to protect its northern border. Twenty-two years later, in 2000, Israel withdrew unilaterally, without an agreement with the Lebanese government, which was dominated by the Assad regime in Damascus. The United Nations established the Blue Line to demarcate the border between the two states, and then-Secretary-General Kofi Annan informed the Security Council that Israel had fully complied with UN Security Council Resolution 425, which mandated the withdrawal.
Even at the pivotal moment of de-escalation in 2000, UNIFIL neither disarmed Hezbollah nor dissolved itself. Instead, then as now, it functions as an entrenched component of Lebanon’s dysfunctional and corrupt state apparatus.
The Lebanese government has already urged world capitals to renew UNIFIL’s mandate at the UN’s August meeting. Local media reports suggest that the US Envoy to Syria informed Beirut officials that UNIFIL would remain, though this stance appears inconsistent with Washington’s current policy deliberations.
France, which contributes thousands of troops to UNIFIL, also opposes disbanding the force, offering no clear rationale for maintaining the status quo. Historically, Paris has maintained a conciliatory approach toward Hezbollah and played a key role in repeatedly renewing UNIFIL’s mandate.
This August, Washington must take a firm stand. Dismantling UNIFIL would foster accountability and progress in Lebanon, Israel, and the broader region.
Hussain Abdul-Hussain is a research fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies (FDD).
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Security Warning to Israelis Vacationing Abroad Ahead of holidays
A passenger arrives to a terminal at Ben Gurion international airport before Israel bans international flights, January 25, 2021. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
i24 News – Ahead of the Jewish High Holidays, Israel’s National Security Council (NSC) published the latest threat assessment to Israelis abroad from terrorist groups to the public on Sunday, in order to increase the Israeli public’s awareness of the existing terrorist threats around the world and encourage individuals to take preventive action accordingly.
The NSC specified that the warning is an up-to-date reflection of the main trends in the activities of terrorist groups around the world and their impact on the level of threat posed to Israelis abroad during these times, but the travel warnings and restrictions themselves are not new.
“As the Gaza war continues and in parallel with the increasing threat of terrorism, the National Security Headquarters stated it has recognized a trend of worsening and increasing violent antisemitic incidents and escalating steps by anti-Israel groups, to the point of physically harming Israelis and Jews abroad. This is in light of, among other things, the anti-Israel narrative and the negative media campaign by pro-Palestinian elements — a trend that may encourage and motivate extremist elements to carry out terrorist activities against Israelis or Jews abroad,” the statement read.
“Therefore, the National Security Bureau is reinforcing its recommendation to the Israeli public to act with responsibility during this time when traveling abroad, to check the status of the National Security Bureau’s travel warnings (before purchasing tickets to the destination,) and to act in accordance with the travel warning recommendations and the level of risk in the country they are visiting,” it listed, adding that, as illustrated in the past year, these warnings are well-founded and reflect a tangible and valid threat potential.
The statement also emphasized the risk of sharing content on social media networks indicating current or past service in the Israeli security forces, as these posts increase the risk of being marked by various parties as a target. “Therefore, the National Security Council recommends that you do not upload to social networks, in any way, content that indicates service in the security forces, operational activity, or similar content, as well as real-time locations.”
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Israel Intensifies Gaza City Bombing as Rubio Arrives
Displaced Palestinians, fleeing northern Gaza due to an Israeli military operation, move southward after Israeli forces ordered residents of Gaza City to evacuate to the south, in the central Gaza Strip September 14, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Israeli forces destroyed at least 30 residential buildings in Gaza City and forced thousands of people from their homes, Palestinian officials said, as US Secretary of State Marco Rubio arrived on Sunday to discuss the future of the conflict.
Israel has said it plans to seize the city, where about a million Palestinians have been sheltering, as part of its declared aim of eliminating the terrorist group Hamas, and has intensified attacks on what it has called Hamas’ last bastion.
The group’s political leadership, which has engaged in on-and-off negotiations on a possible ceasefire and hostage release deal, was targeted by Israel in an airstrike in Doha on Tuesday in an attack that drew widespread condemnation.
Qatar will host an emergency Arab-Islamic summit on Monday to discuss the next moves. Rubio said Washington wanted to talk about how to free the 48 hostages – of whom 20 are believed to be still alive – still held by Hamas in Gaza and rebuild the coastal strip.
“What’s happened, has happened,” he said. “We’re gonna meet with them (the Israeli leadership). We’re gonna talk about what the future holds,” Rubio said before heading to Israel where he will stay until Tuesday.
ABRAHAM ACCORDS AT RISK
He was expected to visit the Western Wall Jewish prayer site in Jerusalem on Sunday with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and hold talks with him during the visit.
US officials described Tuesday’s strike on the territory of a close US ally as a unilateral escalation that did not serve American or Israeli interests. Rubio and US President Donald Trump both met Qatar’s Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani on Friday.
Netanyahu signed an agreement on Thursday to push ahead with a settlement expansion plan that would cut across West Bank land that the Palestinians seek for a state – a move the United Arab Emirates warned would undermine the US-brokered Abraham accords that normalized UAE relations with Israel.
Israel, which blocked all food from entering Gaza for 11 weeks earlier this year, has been allowing more aid into the enclave since late July to prevent further food shortages, though the United Nations says far more is needed.
It says it wants civilians to leave Gaza City before it sends more ground forces in. Tens of thousands of people are estimated to have left but hundreds of thousands remain in the area. Hamas has called on people not to leave.
Israeli army forces have been operating inside at least four eastern suburbs for weeks, turning most of at least three of them into wastelands. It is closing in on the center and the western areas of the territory, where most of the displaced people are taking shelter.
Many are reluctant to leave, saying there is not enough space or safety in the south, where Israel has told them to go to what it has designated as a humanitarian zone.
Some say they cannot afford to leave while others say they were hoping the Arab leaders meeting on Monday in Qatar would pressure Israel to scrap its planned offensive.
“The bombardment intensified everywhere and we took down the tents, more than twenty families, we do not know where to go,” said Musbah Al-Kafarna, displaced in Gaza City.
Israel said it had completed five waves of air strikes on Gaza City over the past week, targeting more than 500 sites, including Hamas reconnaissance and sniper sites, buildings containing tunnel openings and weapons depots.
Local officials, who do not distinguish between militant and civilian casualties, say at least 40 people were killed by Israeli fire across the enclave, a least 28 in Gaza City alone.
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Turkey Warns of Escalation as Israel Expands Strikes Beyond Gaza
Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan speaks during a press conference with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis (not seen) at the Presidential Palace in Ankara, Turkey, May 13, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Umit Bektas
i24 News – An Israeli strike targeting Hamas officials in Qatar has sparked unease among several Middle Eastern countries that host leaders of the group, with Turkey among the most alarmed.
Officials in Ankara are increasingly worried about how far Israel might go in pursuing those it holds responsible for the October 7 attacks.
Israel’s prime minister effectively acknowledged that the Qatar operation failed to eliminate the Hamas leadership, while stressing the broader point the strike was meant to make: “They enjoy no immunity,” the government said.
On X, Prime Minister Netanyahu went further, writing that “the elimination of Hamas leaders would put an end to the war.”
A senior Turkish official, speaking on condition of anonymity, summed up Ankara’s reaction: “The attack in Qatar showed that the Israeli government is ready to do anything.”
Legally and diplomatically, Turkey occupies a delicate position. As a NATO member, any military operation or targeted killing on its soil could inflame tensions within the alliance and challenge mutual security commitments.
Analysts caution, however, that Israel could opt for covert measures, operations carried out without public acknowledgement, a prospect that has increased anxiety in governments across the region.
Israeli officials remain defiant. In an interview with Ynet, Minister Ze’ev Elkin said: “As long as we have not stopped them, we will pursue them everywhere in the world and settle our accounts with them.” The episode underscores growing fears that efforts to hunt Hamas figures beyond Gaza could widen regional friction and complicate diplomatic relationships.