UNIFIL ignored Hezbollah terror build up for 18 years, Israel's UN ambassador says

JERUSALEM – Israeli Ambassador to the U.N. Danny Danon on Sunday accused the United Nations Interim Force In Lebanon (UNIFIL) of failing to enforce its mission to prevent the U.S.-designated terrorist movement Hezbollah from establishing military outposts on the border with Israel.

Israel’s incursion into southern Lebanon has revealed a military outpost about a mere 300 yards north of the border with the Jewish state that is filled with explosives and mines, according to Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

"Hezbollah terrorists are using UNIFIL outposts as hiding places and as places of ambushes. The U.N.'s insistence on keeping the UNIFIL soldiers in the line of fire is incomprehensible," said Danon. 

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An IDF infographic showing what it claims are Hezbollah launches toward Israel from locations near UNIFIL posts. (IDF Spokesman's Unit)

He added "For 18 years, UNIFIL personnel ignored the Hezbollah bases along the border and did not report any Resolution 1701 violations, which states that only the Lebanese army is allowed to operate in the area."

Danon continued that "While the IDF is working against the terrorist organization Hezbollah, we requested that UNIFIL forces move five kilometers (approx 3.1 miles) north of the border in order to stay out of the line of fire. Unfortunately, at this time, this request has not been accepted."

The U.S. and other world powers passed Resolution 1701 at the United Nations Security Council in 2006 to aid the Lebanese Armed Forces in assuming military control over the region, replacing Hezbollah, between the Litani River and the southern border in Lebanon. The goal of the 2006 UNIFIL mandate was to prevent a third war between Israel and the U.S.-designated terrorist organization Hezbollah. Israel fought Hezbollah in 1982 and in the summer of 2006.

Hezbollah’s decision to join Hamas’ war on Israel a day after the Sunni terrorist movement Hamas invaded Israel on Oct. 7 revealed to Israeli war planners and counter-terrorism experts UNIFIL had failed its mission.

Israeli Ambassador Danny Danon speaks to the members of the media before the United Nations Security Council meeting, following a ballistic missile attack on Israel, at U.N. headquarters in New York City on Oct. 2, 2024. (REUTERS/Stephani Spindel)

Hamas slaughtered nearly 1,200 people in southern Israel on Oct. 7, including over 30 Americans. A lethal Hezbollah drone attack on Sunday murdered four IDF soldiers and wounded nearly 60 Israelis.

Hezbollah’s massive military buildup of its presence on Israel’s northern border since the 2006 war has caused an Israeli government re-examination of the clear and present danger of the Iranian-backed Shiite terrorist movement following Hamas’ invasion of Israel’s southern border on Oct. 7.

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The Palestinian flag and the flag of Hezbollah wave in the wind on a pole as peacekeepers from the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon patrol the border area between Lebanon and Israel on Hamames hill in the Khiyam area of southern Lebanon on Oct. 13, 2023. (Photo by JOSEPH EID/AFP via Getty Images)

The IDF said in a statement that "Over the past month, approximately 25 rockets and missiles have been launched at Israeli communities and IDF troops from Hezbollah’s terrorist compounds embedded near UNIFIL posts in southern Lebanon, exploiting their proximity to U.N. forces. One of the attacks resulted in the deaths of two IDF soldiers. Hezbollah uses compounds located above and below ground to carry out terrorist attacks against the State of Israel."

A Hezbollah weapons cache located near a UNIFIL post by IDF troops in southern Lebanon.

UNIFIL issued a statement on Sunday, announcing, "Early this morning, peacekeepers at a U.N. position in Ramyah observed three platoons of IDF soldiers crossing the Blue Line into Lebanon. At around 4:30 a.m., while peacekeepers were in shelters, two IDF Merkava tanks destroyed the position’s main gate and forcibly entered the position. They requested multiple times that the base turn out its lights. The tanks left about 45 minutes later after UNIFIL protested through our liaison mechanism, saying that IDF presence was putting peacekeepers in danger."

UNIFIL added "peacekeepers at the same position reported the firing of several rounds 100 meters north, which emitted smoke. Despite putting on protective masks, fifteen peacekeepers suffered effects, including skin irritation and gastrointestinal reactions, after the smoke entered the camp. The peacekeepers are receiving treatment."

A UNIFIL patrol drives past the wreckage of a car that was targeted in an Israeli strike early on March 2, 2024 near the southern Lebanese town of Naqoura. (Photo by -/AFP via Getty Images)

Danon said "The details of the incident involving UNIFIL soldiers in southern Lebanon are currently being investigated. In the coming days, we will continue to promote a dialogue on this issue with the relevant parties at the UN."

When Fox News Digital approached UNIFIL spokesman Andrea Tenenti for a comment about Danon’s criticism, Tenenti did not immediately respond.

Over the weekend, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on UNIFIL to withdraw its troops from southern Lebanon because they are being used as "human shields" to advance the Iranian regime-backed Hezbollah war machinery.

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An Israeli soldier walks by a tunnel entrance near an observation post of the United Nations Interim Forces in Lebanon in the southern Lebanese village of Naqoura along the border with Israel. (Photo by Ilia Yefimovich/picture alliance via Getty Images)

Speaking in Hebrew, Netanyahu told the U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres, "It is time for you to withdraw UNIFIL from Hezbollah strongholds and from the areas of combat."

Stéphane Dujarric, spokesman for the secretary-general, said "Against the backdrop of the ongoing hostilities in southern Lebanon and despite attacks that have hit United Nations positions, injuring a number of peacekeepers in the past several days, UNIFIL peacekeepers remain in all positions and the U.N. flag continues to fly."

Dujarric added that "The Secretary-General reiterates that the safety and security of U.N. personnel and property must be guaranteed and that the inviolability of U.N. premises must be respected at all times without qualification. In a deeply worrying incident that occurred today, the entrance door of a U.N. position was deliberately breached by IDF armored vehicles."

Hezbollah fighters form a human barrier during the funeral procession of slain top Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr in Beirut's southern suburbs on Aug. 1, 2024. (Photo by KHALED DESOUKI/AFP via Getty Images)

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The U.N. chief called "on all parties, including the IDF, to refrain from any and all actions that put our peacekeepers at risk. The Secretary-General takes the opportunity to reiterate the call for a cessation of hostilities and the full implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701."

Guterres did not address that the Hezbollah tunnel shafts discovered by the IDF were located a mere 300 feet away from a UNIFIL peacekeeping observation post, as well as the presence of other Hezbollah military installations in a zone that was required by UNSC 1701 to be free from Hezbollah explosives and armaments. The elaborate Hezbollah tunnels were found west of the Lebanese village of Labbouneh.

The United Nations Security Council will once again discuss the situation in Lebanon later on Monday.