After Israel announced the beginning of a ground invasion into southern Lebanon on 30 September 2024, the Israeli army launched multiple attacks against United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) positions, wounding several members of the peacekeeping forces and inflicting severe damage on UNIFIL facilities. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu demanded that the UN immediately have UNIFIL evacuate its positions around the “Blue Line,” claiming that Hezbollah was using them as a human shield. The UN refused to submit to this demand and insisted on keeping the peacekeeping forces in southern Lebanon despite the escalation of the armed confrontation between the Israeli army and Hezbollah fighters endangering its troops. UNIFIL’s steadfastness seems to be hindering Israel’s plan to overrun south Lebanon, while putting the occupying state at odds with a number of allied European states whose soldiers serve in the mission.
