Beirut, Lebanon. The United Nations Interim Force for Lebanon (Finul), the target of Israeli fire that drew condemnation from several countries, has been deployed in the south of this country since 1978.
This force, which has about 9,500 soldiers, has been caught in the crossfire between Israel and Hezbollah since the pro-Iran movement opened a front against the Jewish state in October 2023.
Since then he has not stopped calling on both sides to cease hostilities.
It now accuses Israeli forces – who launched a ground incursion into southern Lebanon at the end of September – of “repeated” and “deliberate” shooting at its positions, which has left four peacekeepers injured in two days.
Italy accused Israel of possible “war crimes” and summoned, like France, the Israeli ambassador to its soil.
Finul is deployed between the Litani River and the Lebanese-Israeli border, and its headquarters is located in Ras al Naqura, near the border with Israel.
Indonesia, India, Ghana, Nepal, Italy, Malaysia, Spain, France, China and Ireland are the top ten troop-contributing countries to the mission.
Resolution 1701
Finul calls for the application of Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006.
This resolution stipulates the cessation of hostilities on both sides of the border and provides that only UN peacekeeping forces and the Lebanese army be deployed in southern Lebanon.
This text allowed the deployment of the Lebanese army along the border, until then in the hands of Hezbollah. But the Islamist group has maintained its presence in the region, where experts believe it has excavated a significant network of tunnels.
In 2020, the UN asked Lebanon for access to these tunnels – which constitute a violation of Resolution 1701 – under the Blue Line, which marks the border between both countries, without success.
After 2006, shooting and tensions continued to occur between Israel and Hezbollah, although sporadically, until the new escalation in October 2023.
FINUL’s primary mission is to support humanitarian efforts, but it can also “decide any necessary action in relation to the deployment of its forces, in order to ensure that its area of operations is not used for hostile acts.”
334 muertos
The Security Council created FINUL in 1978 and then deployed 6,000 men after a first invasion of part of southern Lebanon by Israel, which claimed to seek to protect the north of its territory from Palestine Liberation Organization fighters. (PLO).
In 1982, Israeli troops reached the capital Beirut before withdrawing in 1985. The Security Council ordered the Israeli army (resolution 425) to withdraw its forces from all Lebanese territory, but Israel retained a border strip.
It was not until August 2000 when Finul, until then a powerless witness against Israel in southern Lebanon, was deployed to the border after the end of the Israeli occupation in May.
FINUL, whose mandate is renewed each year by the UN Security Council, has lost 334 men, most of them soldiers, since 1978.
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