UNIFIL Fails Again

The UN's operation in Lebanon, UNIFIL, continues to look the other way as Hizbullah continues to regroup and rearm South Lebanon despite UNIFIL's mandate to disarm all militias operating inside Lebanon and to ensure Lebanon's territorial integrity.

This is the relevant wording of the UN Security Council Resolution under which UNIFIL operates with specific reference to militias and disarmament:

Calls for Israel and Lebanon to support a permanent ceasefire and a longterm
solution based on the following principles and elements:
– full respect for the Blue Line by both parties;
– security arrangements to prevent the resumption of hostilities, including the establishment between the Blue Line and the Litani river of an area free of any armed personnel, assets and weapons other than those of the Government of Lebanon and of UNIFIL as authorized in paragraph 11, deployed in this area;
– full implementation of the relevant provisions of the Taif Accords, and of resolutions 1559 (2004) and 1680 (2006), that require the disarmament of all armed groups in Lebanon, so that, pursuant to the Lebanese cabinet decision of 27 July 2006, there will be no weapons or authority in Lebanon other than that of the Lebanese State;
– no foreign forces in Lebanon without the consent of its Government;
– no sales or supply of arms and related materiel to Lebanon except as
authorized by its Government;

With all this in mind, Israel is finding that Hizbullah is sending in the rockets and weapons into South Lebanon in direct contravention of UN SCR 1701 and its express requirement to maintain a demilitarized area in South Lebanon.

One could further argue that Hizbullah is not so much a Lebanese group as it is a proxy force from Iran and Syria, which again is a direct violation of UN SCR 1701.

So what is the UN doing about this? Nothing.

Hizbullah guerrillas have moved most of their rockets in south Lebanon among civilians in villages in an apparent attempt to avoid detection by Israel and UN troops, IDF officials said Sunday.

The new moves are part of Hizbullah’s reorganization after the Second Lebanon War, the officials said. During the summer’s war, Hizbullah fired almost 4,000 rockets at Israel. While Lebanon criticized the IDF for targeting civilian areas during the war, Israel said Hizbullah was to blame for operating among civilians and putting them at risk.

Last summer, many of Hizbullah’s rocket batteries were located in unpopulated rural areas, where the guerrillas dug networks of tunnels and fortifications, the officials said. But the army’s new intelligence indicates that those positions had now largely been abandoned in favor of populated villages, which provide better cover for the group’s activities. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity.

So, on top of rearming in direct violation of UN SCR 1701, they're purposefully moving their rockets and missiles into towns and villages to use them as human shields and propaganda should Israel engage in counter battery fire against those positions.

Hizbullah is an Islamic terrorist group dedicated to Israel's destruction and could care less how many civilians are killed as a result of its actions on either side of the border as any such casualties will be exploited for propaganda purposes. By moving their operations North of the Litani, it suggests that they've rearmed with even longer range rockets and missiles and are capable of hitting into Israel from a greater distance.

UNIFIL will further be able to claim that they've done all that they could simply because Hizbullah isn't in the area between the Litani and the border with Israel (Blue Line). Of course, that ignores the fact that Lebanon and UNIFIL were supposed to be disarming all the militias.