{"id":2490,"date":"2025-08-31T19:38:30","date_gmt":"2025-08-31T19:38:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2025\/08\/31\/unifils-mandate-in-southern-lebanon-was-renewed-what-happens-next\/"},"modified":"2025-08-31T19:38:30","modified_gmt":"2025-08-31T19:38:30","slug":"unifils-mandate-in-southern-lebanon-was-renewed-what-happens-next","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2025\/08\/31\/unifils-mandate-in-southern-lebanon-was-renewed-what-happens-next\/","title":{"rendered":"UNIFIL\u2019s mandate in southern Lebanon was renewed. What happens next?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

The United Nations Security Council voted on Thursday to extend the UN peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon, known as UNIFIL, until the end of 2026 and then to begin an \u201corderly and safe drawdown and withdrawal\u201d over the course of 2027.<\/p>\n

The winding down of UNIFIL has been pushed heavily by Israel and the United States, who accuse the group of providing political cover for Hezbollah since the 2006 war and failing to work to disarm Hezbollah, despite that not being the UN body\u2019s stated mission.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Israel continues to occupy at least five points on Lebanese territory following its invasion of south Lebanon last October. A ceasefire agreement reached in November stipulated that Israeli troops should withdraw from south Lebanon, but that has not yet happened.<\/p>\n

So what does the end of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) mean for the border area between Lebanon and Israel? Here\u2019s what you need to know.<\/p>\n

What happens now?<\/h2>\n

UNIFIL will stay in south Lebanon until December 31, 2026.<\/p>\n

After that, it will have a year to withdraw its troops and hand over control of the area to the Lebanese Army.<\/p>\n

The development seems to be in Israel\u2019s favour, considering Israel\u2019s disproportionate advantage in military power, technology, and US support. Israel regularly hits Lebanon with military attacks, and even before October 2023, when Hezbollah entered the war with Israel, Israel\u2019s air force regularly violated Lebanon\u2019s airspace with surveillance flyovers.<\/p>\n

\"Lebanese
Lebanese security forces will have to deploy to all parts of south Lebanon when UNIFIL\u2019s mandate ends [Hussein Malla\/AP]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

With UNIFIL gone, there will be no international body to monitor these violations.<\/h2>\n

In a statement in advance of the vote, UNIFIL spokesperson Andrea Tenenti questioned how UN Security Council Resolution 1701, adopted at the end of the 2006 war to stop hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah,\u00a0 could be implemented with Israeli forces still in Lebanon.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe commitment of the Lebanese government is there, but how can they be deployed everywhere in the south if the [Israeli military] are still present in the south?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo these are the things that are very difficult to comprehend.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"INTERACTIVE<\/p>\n

What is UNIFIL?<\/h2>\n

Founded in 1978, the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) was created to oversee the withdrawal of Israeli troops after Israel invaded southern Lebanon earlier that year. Israel would reinvade in 1982 and occupy south Lebanon until 2000, when Israeli forces were expelled by Hezbollah.<\/p>\n

UNIFIL is a peacekeeping mission of more than 10,000 peacekeepers from 47 countries, with the highest number of them coming from Indonesia and Italy.<\/p>\n

It monitors the entire border region and reports violations of UN Resolution 1701.<\/p>\n

Its headquarters are in Naqoura, a coastal town that Israel has focused its attacks on. Al Jazeera found<\/a> earlier this year that Israel destroyed most of the town after the ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon in November 2024, not during fighting.<\/p>\n

UNIFIL\u2019s operations take place across 1,060sq km (409 square miles) of the south, where it has 50 positions on Lebanese territory.<\/p>\n

Can UNIFIL use force?<\/h2>\n

Only in self-defence or to protect civilians under attack.<\/p>\n

As a peacekeeping force, UNIFIL does not typically fire on either Israel or Hezbollah.<\/p>\n

In recent cases where its vehicles have been attacked, UNIFIL used nonlethal force to defend itself.<\/p>\n

How do the Israelis feel about UNIFIL?<\/h2>\n

They\u2019re not fans.<\/p>\n

Israel has attacked UNIFIL peacekeepers in the past, and during the war last year, UNIFIL accused Israel of deliberate and direct attacks<\/a> on its peacekeepers.<\/p>\n

Unlike in Gaza, where the only voices to report on Israeli attacks or killings of civilians are Palestinian voices, UNIFIL is a body with an international mandate and legitimacy that reports on Israeli attacks and violations in southern Lebanon.<\/p>\n

For its part, the US sees UNIFIL as a waste of money that doesn\u2019t directly confront Hezbollah\u2019s influence in south Lebanon.<\/p>\n

Under President Donald Trump, the US has increasingly adopted Israel\u2019s position on UNIFIL.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis will be the last time the United States will support an extension of UNIFIL,\u201d said Dorothy Shea, acting US ambassador to the UN. \u201cThe United States notes that the first \u2018i\u2019 in UNIFIL stands for \u2018interim\u2019. The time has come for UNIFIL\u2019s mission to end.\u201d<\/p>\n

What\u2019s wrong with Hezbollah?<\/h2>\n

Israel and the US view Hezbollah as a \u201cterrorist\u201d organisation.<\/p>\n

Hezbollah was formed in the 1980s as a response to Israel\u2019s occupation of Lebanon and eventually drove the occupiers out of south Lebanon. The two parties fought a war to a stalemate in 2006, though most of the casualties and destruction were incurred by Lebanon.<\/p>\n

Between 2006 and last year, Israel viewed Hezbollah as a primary threat, and its weapons as a deterrence to military action. Since November\u2019s ceasefire, Israel\u2019s military has attacked southern Lebanon, and occasionally struck closer to Beirut, without restraint, despite an agreement that hostilities would cease.<\/p>\n

Israel claims it is attacking Hezbollah targets, though civilians were regularly killed during the war last year and continue to die in Israeli strikes.<\/p>\n

\"Lebanon
Israel and the US want to counter Hezbollah\u2019s influence in south Lebanon [Bilal Hussein\/AP]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

What about the Lebanese?<\/h2>\n

The current Lebanese government supported UNIFIL\u2019s renewal.<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Nawaf Salam welcomed the vote to renew UNIFIL\u2019s mandate, saying<\/a> it \u201creiterates the call for Israel to withdraw its forces from the five sites it continues to occupy, and affirms the necessity of extending state authority over all its territory\u201d.<\/p>\n

But the Lebanese government aside, there is a wider spectrum of views on UNIFIL in south Lebanon.<\/p>\n

While some Lebanese locals support the peacekeepers\u2019 presence, many have been vocally critical of them.<\/p>\n

In May, civilians wielding axes and rods attacked a UN vehicle in south Lebanon. Many southerners who cannot return to their homes in south Lebanon, either because their villages have been razed to the ground by Israel or because there is still a threat of Israeli attacks, have taken out their frustration against UNIFIL troops. Others reportedly view them with suspicion.<\/p>\n

Viral videos have shown confrontations between Lebanese civilians and UNIFIL troops. In one, a local smacks a Finnish UNIFIL peacekeeper across the face after an argument.<\/p>\n

\"UN
Vehicles from the UNIFIL peacekeeping force ride along a street amid ongoing hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, in Marjayoun, near the border with Israel, southern Lebanon, November 19, 2024 [Karamallah Daher\/Reuters]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The United Nations Security Council voted on Thursday to extend the UN peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon, known as UNIFIL, until the end of 2026 and then to begin an \u201corderly and safe drawdown and withdrawal\u201d over the course of 2027. The winding down of UNIFIL has been pushed heavily by Israel and the United … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2491,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2490","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2490","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2490"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2490\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2491"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}