UN peacekeepers prepare for war between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah: NPR

Members of the Lebanese army and the Italian contingent of the UNIFIL peacekeeping force inspect a house destroyed by an Israeli attack during a patrol in Yarine on June 10, 2024.

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ALMA AL-CHAAB, Lebanon – United Nations vehicles rumble along a deserted road in southern Lebanon, past abandoned villages, destroyed houses and burned and blackened farmland – remnants of daily attacks along the border with Israel that now threaten to escalate into open war.

Over the past nine months since the Gaza war began, Israel and Lebanon have largely limited their attacks along the border to military targets within a zone a few kilometers from either side of the historic ceasefire line. But recently, escalating attacks by both sides, pushing further into Lebanon and Israel, have raised fears of increased fighting.

Literally at the centre of this confrontation is the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, which was established in 1978 following Israel’s invasion of its neighbouring country. Although its name suggests it would only be a temporary force, UNIFIL is one of the longest-running peacekeeping missions in the world.

UNIFIL recently took NPR on a patrol along the Blue Line — the ceasefire line carefully demarcated in 2000 after Israel withdrew following an invasion in 1982. Occasional strikes have signaled the daily artillery and rocket attacks since Iran-backed Hezbollah began targeting Israel in support of Hamas in the Gaza war.

“The situation is really quite unstable these days,” said Captain Alessandro Crepy, infantry company commander in the Italian contingent of UNIFIL, one of the largest participants in the mission.

The view from an armored UNIFIL vehicle shows the destruction caused by the conflict in Lebanon.

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The UN soldiers regularly conduct patrols along the de facto border, both alone and jointly with the Lebanese army, to monitor what have become regular violations of the 2006 UN ceasefire agreement. That agreement, reached after a 34-day war between Israel and Hezbollah, established a demilitarized zone along the blue line. Violations are reported to the UN Security Council.

The attacks on Israel are not carried out by the Lebanese army, but by Hezbollah and its allies. But according to the UN plan – which calls for Lebanese government forces to secure the Lebanese border, not the Iran-backed Hezbollah – UNIFIL deals only with Lebanese government forces.

This agreement means that before the war began in October, when peacekeepers were still holding indirect talks between Israeli and Lebanese military at a UNIFIL base, the Lebanese army passed Israeli messages to Hezbollah and vice versa. Lebanon and Israel have no diplomatic relations and the two politicians do not speak to each other.

These trilateral meetings at a U-shaped table – during which communication took place only with the UNIFIL representatives sitting at the end of the table – ended abruptly with the start of the war. Lebanon has experienced a severe political, security and economic crisis in recent decades. Hezbollah, which was founded after Israel’s invasion of Lebanon in 1982 to fight Israeli forces, is, according to military analysts, much stronger and better equipped than the Lebanese army.

“We are maintaining relations with both sides,” said Lieutenant Colonel Bruno Vio, a member of the UNIFIL contingent, referring to Lebanon and Israel. “We must try to continue to de-escalate the situation to avoid any escalation and give diplomats the opportunity to reach a ceasefire.”

A UNIFIL member of the Italian contingent observes an Israeli position from a watchtower inside his base on the blue line between Lebanon and Israel.

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UNIFIL also carries out humanitarian missions, including supporting hospitals, but these operations have been largely limited by the fighting along the border. Although there were no mandatory evacuations in Lebanon and some civilians remained in their homes, the fighting displaced more than 90,000 people and forced them to leave the border area to stay in makeshift shelters or with relatives. Tens of thousands of civilians were displaced on the Israeli side after the government evacuated towns along the border.

Both sides say they want to avoid war, but the Israeli military has approved plans for an offensive in Lebanon, while the Hezbollah leader warns that no target will be off-limits if war breaks out.

“We do not want an open war because our struggle is a struggle of support,” Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said in a speech on June 20, referring to the group’s goal of helping Hamas in the Gaza Strip by distracting Israeli forces. “But everyone knows that things could get out of hand,” he said in his address through an Iranian television interpreter.

UNIFIL has long feared that the two countries could slide into war.

“The possibility of a mistake or error could trigger a larger conflict and that is the biggest concern for all of us,” UNIFIL spokesman Andrea Tenenti said earlier this year. “There are so many things that could lead to a miscalculation.”

A Ghanaian battalion repairs UNIFIL vehicles inside the base.

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UNIFIL has around 10,000 peacekeepers from 47 countries. The United States is not part of the mission.

“Since 2006, the situation has been fairly stable,” Tenenti said. “Seventeen years of stability was unprecedented. We had hoped to work towards a more lasting peace in southern Lebanon.”

UNIFIL was not a direct target in the conflict. But since October, the mission has become more dangerous. Increased shelling means peacekeepers regularly have to take cover in bases and even in concrete bunkers. At the UNIFIL base closest to the Blue Line, just a few hundred meters from Israel, cracks can be seen from holes in solar panels hit by shrapnel from rockets destroyed in the air by Israeli defenses. The mission’s rules of engagement allow it to use force only in self-defense or to carry out its duties.

Just outside the base, near a tower where a UN soldier looks out over the border with binoculars, the trees are burned and blackened by arson attacks aimed at depriving the fighters of cover. From the tower, the Israeli coastal town of Nahariya is clearly visible.

A view shows a house destroyed by an Israeli attack in Alma al-Chaab in southern Lebanon.

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In Yarine, one of the deserted Lebanese villages, the refrigerators with broken glass fronts outside a cafe are still filled with beer. The sign of a medical pharmacy is covered in shrapnel. A house has collapsed after an air raid.

“It’s like a rollercoaster ride,” said Major Alfred Alhassan Issaka, the head of the Ghanaian UNIFIL contingent, which is one of the mission’s largest personnel donors. “When you’re here for a very long time, you get used to the situation. Now we have to change the way we do things.”