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UNIFIL Meant to Discourage Aggression by Presence Rather than Force – A Vulnerable Entity

Hill Times: 23 October 2024

The Israeli Defense Force (IDF) recently attacked UN peacekeepers in Southern Lebanon, wounding four soldiers. Israel and its backers justify this violence by claiming that the UN peacekeepers failed to limit Hezbollah’s activities since being positioned there in 2006.

According to this flawed logic, UN peacekeepers anywhere in the world may be attacked if they fail to meet the expectations of warring parties. UN peacekeepers are lightly-armed and depend mainly on good will for their safety.
The Israeli argument ignores the fact that UN forces could only be positioned inside Lebanon since Israel consistently bars UN peacekeepers from entering its territory. As well, the UN mission’s purpose was not disarming Hezbollah but merely discouraging hostilities through their presence.

The recent Israeli attack on the UNIFIL is not the first or the worst instance of IDF hostility to UN personnel seeking to impede their aggressive actions and intentions.

On July 25, 2006 Canadian Major Paeta Hess-Von Krudener, a UN peacekeeper in Lebanon, died after an Israeli jet bombed his UN observation post. The Harper government accepted the Israeli explanation that the strike was an error.

Prior to his death, Major Hess-Von Krudener and other UN peacekeepers had reported numerous IDF artillery and aerial bombardments uncomfortably-close to their observation bunkers. The IDF bomb arrived after the peacekeepers began reporting the violations.

In recent weeks, the so-called Axis of Resistance forces have exercised greater restraint than the IDF, weakening Israel claims about fielding the “most moral army in the world.”