Libanon

UN peacekeepers temporarily suspended patrols and other activities along parts of the ‘Blue Line’ in southern Lebanon after the Israeli military said it would release what it described as a non-toxic chemical substance near the frontier, the UN said on Monday.

Lebanon will need some sort of international force after the withdrawal of the United Nations’s UNIFIL mission scheduled for 2027, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said during a visit to Paris on Saturday. … “We will always need an international presence in the south, and preferably a UN presence, given the impartiality and neutrality that only the UN can provide,” Nawaf Salam said the day after a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron.

The Israeli military said it struck four crossings along the Syria-Lebanon border on Wednesday that were used by Hezbollah to smuggle weapons, after earlier launching fresh strikes on the militant group in Lebanon.

Peacekeeping operations in the Middle East are facing mounting security risks, funding pressures and political uncertainty, the head of UN peacekeeping warned on Friday. Briefing journalists by video link from Jeddah following an extensive visit to the region, Jean-Pierre Lacroix, said there has been an uptick in dangerous incidents involving peacekeepers and the fragile environment in which missions are operating.

The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon said an Israeli tank fired near its peacekeepers on Monday, and warned that such attacks were becoming “disturbingly common.” … UNIFIL has acted as a buffer between Israel and Lebanon for decades, and recently has been working with Lebanon’s army to support a year-old ceasefire between Israel and militant group Hezbollah.

The end of 2025 was the army’s self-imposed deadline to complete the first phase of its plan to bring all weapons in the country under state control. … But Israel already has a verdict on the army’s performance. It says Hezbollah still has a presence close to the border and is rebuilding its military capabilities “faster than the army is dismantling [them]”. The United Nations peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon has a different take. It says there is “no evidence” that Hezbollah’s infrastructure has been rebuilt.

A ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon says Lebanese militant group Hezbollah must be disarmed by December 31. As that deadline nears, tensions are rising along with concerns of civil war or more Israeli attacks.

Israeli airstrikes took place within the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon’s (UNIFIL) area of operations, the mission said in a statement issued on Friday.  The strikes come as the Lebanese Armed Forces continue operations to control unauthorised weapons and infrastructure in south Lebanon a year after a cessation of hostilities was announced in the country.

The UN human rights office has urged a “prompt and impartial” investigation into Israeli strikes in Lebanon, warning of possible violations of international humanitarian law nearly a year after a ceasefire was signed. Thameen Al-Kheetan, spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, cited an attack last week on the Ein el-Hilweh refugee camp that killed 11 children.

Israel said it struck a series of Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon on Thursday, with President Joseph Aoun denouncing the new attacks as a "fully-fledged crime" and accusing Israel of rejecting Beirut's overtures towards diplomacy.