Israel's row with UN over Lebanon peacekeepers driven by long distrust

Strains among Israel and the UN over its peacekeeping activities in southern Lebanon have heightened as of late – albeit the showdowns have their foundations in long periods of doubt and recriminations.

The UN peacekeeping force, which was established in 1978 following the Israeli invasion of southern Lebanon and had its role bolstered in 2006 to monitor and keep the peace there after that year's war between Israel and Hezbollah, rejected a call on Monday from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the forces known as Unifil to pull out of "combat areas."

I have filmed alongside UN peacekeepers patrolling the "Blue Line," a UN-recognized boundary that separates Israel and Lebanon that is 120 kilometers (75 miles) long. I have also witnessed the risky work of demining 5 million square meters of land in southern Lebanon, where Unifil has destroyed more than 51,000 mines and unexploded bombs that were left over from previous wars.

In any case, Israel blames Unifil for missing the mark in one of its other key liabilities. The United Nations was mandated to establish a region in southern Lebanon devoid of any armed forces other than the Lebanese army under UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which brought an end to the conflict in 2006.

In a recent social media post, Israeli cabinet minister Eli Cohen stated, "The UN is a failed organization and UNIFIL is a useless force that failed to enforce Resolution 1701 and failed to prevent Hezbollah from establishing itself in southern Lebanon."

Hezbollah's extensive regrouping and rearming, as the Iranian-backed Shia organization grew into a formidable fighting force even larger than the official Lebanese army, is alleged by Israel to have been overlooked by Unifil. Hezbollah is presently banished as a psychological militant association by Israel, the UK, US and different nations.

UN Watch, a pro-Israeli pressure group, claims that Unifil "did nothing" because "Hezbollah was digging tunnels to invade Israel, kidnap & attack Israeli civilians" and "embedding missiles in civilian homes." In recent posts, UN Watch and the Israeli Government's Media Office claim that Hezbollah had been able to operate freely and within clear sight of UN bases and posts along or near the Blue Line.

After Israeli troops crossed the border into Lebanon, they discovered tunnels, heavy weapons, and equipment for an attack on Israel.

In a video message sent this week to the UN secretary general, a belligerent Benjamin Netanyahu explained why Israel is demanding that Unifil forces leave conflict areas in southern Lebanon.

The Israeli prime minister said that the secretary general's refusal to evacuate the Unifil soldiers makes them "hostages of Hezbollah... endangering them and the lives of our [Israeli] soldiers." The Israeli prime minister also urged Antonio Guterres not to allow Hezbollah to use UN peacekeepers as "human shields."

Israel was generally scrutinized after five Unifil peacekeepers were harmed following the ground intrusion on 1 October.

Israeli tanks forced their way into a Unifil compound where they initially refused demands to leave, and Israeli fire has hit clearly marked and recognizable Unifil bases in several instances.

Israel has offered clarifications for those episodes in any case, once more, says the method for staying away from a redundancy is for Unifil troops to pull out from the area.

That has been met with a firm "No." A spokesperson for Unifil said that the Israeli military "deliberately" fired on its positions, and 40 countries that provide troops to Unifil said last week that they "strongly condemn recent attacks" on the peacekeepers.

The UN Security Board, meeting in New York, additionally “urged all gatherings to regard the wellbeing and security of Unifil work force and UN premises,” said Switzerland’s UN Minister Pascale Baeriswyl. She added, "They reiterated their support for Unifil, underscoring its role in supporting regional stability." UN bodies are also attempting to hold Israel accountable in Gaza, where Israeli troops have been engaged in an intensified offensive for the past week to drive Hamas fighters from northern areas, including the Jabalia refugee camp.

The Israel Safeguard Powers (IDF) say that they have given clear requests for huge number of regular citizens to leave the contention zone for purported “safe areas”.

Yet, with upwards of 400,000 individuals caught in the north, barely any regions in Gaza can be considered “safe” and, as per many reports, in excess of 300 individuals have been killed in Israel’s most recent hostile.

As a result, the United Nations Human Rights Office issued a strongly worded statement in which it claimed that the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) were "trapping tens of thousands of Palestinians, including civilians, in their homes and shelters with no access to food or other life-sustaining necessities." The statement also claimed that Israeli troops had fired on civilians trying to flee the area, which could be considered a "war crime." Israel claims that Hamas is actively encouraging civilians to leave Jabalia

For the overwhelming majority in the ongoing Israeli organization, most importantly – for a long time – the Unified Countries and its associations have been intrinsically and primarily hostile to Israel

Israel is presently making an extraordinary lawful move against UNRWA – the UN body laid out over quite a while back to help Palestine exiles across the Center East, including Gaza and the West Bank.

Israel has long alleged that Unrwa, a UN organization established more than 70 years ago to assist Palestine refugees in the Middle East, including Gaza and the West Bank, actively acted against its interests.

It says Unrwa faculty were straightforwardly engaged with Hamas’s 7 October assaults, when large number of shooters got through the line wall from Gaza and killed around 1,200 individuals in southern Israel and took another 251 back to Gaza as prisoners.

Twelve Unrwa employees, out of a workforce of 13,000, were accused of taking part in the attacks.

Israel’s Ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, told the Security Council that Unrwa had allowed Hamas to infiltrate its ranks and that “this infiltration is so ingrained, so institutional, that the organization is simply beyond repair.”

To that end, a committee in Israel’s parliament has now approved legislation that would ban Unrwa from operating in Israeli territory and end all contact between the Israeli government and the agency.

Unrwa's head responded, saying that if the legislation is adopted, the body’s humanitarian operations in Gaza and the West Bank may “disintegrate.”

Philippe Lazzarini said that senior Israeli officials were “bent on destroying Unrwa” which is the main provider of humanitarian aid in Gaza. It runs schools, primary healthcare centres and social services for the vast majority of Gaza’s population of 2.2 million people.

But criticisms from the UN and its member nations will not deter Israel from achieving its military objectives in Gaza and Lebanon, nor in the occupied West Bank as long, crucially, as it enjoys the backing of the United States.

Remarkably, Israel has gone as far as barring the UN Secretary General from entering the country. Foreign Minister, Israel Katz, saying that Antonio Guterres was now persona non-grata after not "unequivocally" condemning Iran's missile attack on Israel. The move prompted Mr Guterres to insist that he “strongly condemn[ed]” the attack, although the "ban" has not been lifted.

While Israel might owe its very existence to the UN – the body that voted it into being in 1947 - its relationship with the organisation has never been so bad.