UN: Israel Has Committed 10K Violations in Lebanon in One Year of Ceasefire

Israeli forces have committed thousands of violations of Lebanese air and land space over the past year since the implementation of Israel’s ceasefire agreement with Hezbollah, according to UN peacekeepers.

According to the UN Interim Force in Lebanon, known as UNIFIL, Israeli forces are responsible for over 7,500 air violations and nearly 2,500 ground violations in the past year. This totals nearly 10,000 violations in less than a year of the ceasefire, which took effect on November 27, 2024.

The group additionally noted that peacekeepers have handed more than 360 “abandoned weapons caches” from Hezbollah over to the Lebanese military.

“A fragile stability holds along the Blue Line,” UNIFIL said. It noted that violations are reported to the UN Security Council.

The so-called peacekeeping force was established in 1978, in response to an Israeli invasion of Lebanon. Its primary goal is to monitor the withdrawal of Israeli forces past the “Blue Line” of withdrawal established to divide Lebanon from Israel and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. Israel has repeatedly violated this line, including in numerous subsequent invasions of Lebanon.

According to the UN, Israeli forces have carried out more than 500 airstrikes in Lebanon over the first 10 months of ceasefire, killing at least 108 civilians, including 16 children. Israel is violating the ceasefire on a near daily basis, officials have said.

The UN has also recorded 19 abductions of Lebanese civilians by Israeli soldiers.

“Despite the ceasefire, Israel continues to strike Lebanese territory almost daily,” a group of UN human rights experts said in a statement in October. “These attacks have resulted in a mounting toll of civilian deaths and injuries and destruction and damage of infrastructure, housing, the environment and agricultural zones vital to civilian livelihoods.”

Israel has been threatening another escalation in Lebanon, and has recently ramped up attacks. On Tuesday, Israel carried out one of its deadliest airstrikes since the ceasefire on a Palestinian refugee camp in southern Lebanon, killing 13 people.

UNIFIL further reported that on Sunday, Israeli forces fired heavy machine gun rounds from a tank near one of the five positions Israel still holds in Lebanon. These rounds hit about five meters from UNIFIL peacekeepers, “who were on foot and had to take shelter in the terrain,” the agency said.

Peacekeepers then asked Israel to stop firing through its channels with the military, and the tank withdrew half an hour later. “This represents a serious violation of Security Council resolution 1701,” the group said.

This came days after UNIFIL said on Friday that Israel is constructing walls within Lebanese territory past the Blue Line. The wall has made over 4,000 square meters of Lebanese land “inaccessible,” the group said.