Israel is demanding an expanded UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon with broader inspection rights over all the country’s borders, warning that it would use force if necessary to uphold the terms of any ceasefire deal with Hizbollah.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government wants Unifil, the UN-mandated force deployed along the two countries’ de facto border, to expand its remit to include areas north of the Litani river, which was previously the upper limit of the peacekeepers’ area of responsibility, said diplomats and people familiar with the talks.
Israel has also said it wants international forces to monitor areas in the eastern Bekaa province and those near the Syrian border to the east and north of Lebanon, the people said.
This would all be done in conjunction with a more muscular and empowered Lebanese army. But Lebanon is highly unlikely to agree to some of Israel’s package of demands, which also include freedom for its air force to fly over Lebanon, diplomats said.
Netanyahu’s conditions have been communicated to international diplomats after Israel expanded its assault on Lebanese militant group Hizbollah in recent weeks, killing its leader Hassan Nasrallah and launching a land offensive and thousands of air strikes.
Israel’s success in weakening the militant group over the past month has emboldened it to stake out a maximalist position, the people said. Others said the ideas were still under discussion, with some of Israel’s points seen as bargaining positions.
During the offensive, Unifil has accused Israel of targeting its troops in a series of incidents in recent weeks that resulted in injuries and damage to its bases. Israel has denied deliberately targeting the UN personnel.
Israel’s demands, which some diplomats called “1701 plus”, would entail a more robust role for Unifil, which is governed by UN Security Council resolution 1701. The resolution ended the last war between Iran-backed Hizbollah and Israel in 2006.
It was never fully implemented by either side, but has guided US-led diplomatic efforts to end the latest conflict, which erupted after Hizbollah began firing at Israel after Hamas’s October 7 2023 attack on Israel.
In a visit to Beirut this week, US envoy Amos Hochstein sought concrete guarantees from Lebanese officials on exactly how Beirut would beef up and empower its own armed forces to ensure Hizbollah does not return to southern Lebanon after an agreement, Lebanese politicians and diplomats said.
He told reporters that 1701 would remain the basis for a diplomatic solution, but added that more needed to be done to ensure it was implemented.
“We must be honest that no one did anything to implement it,” Hochstein said, adding that “the commitment of both parties to respect Resolution 1701 is not enough”.
The Lebanese state has struggled to impose its authority south of the Litani, where Hizbollah dominates.
On Thursday, Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati said Beirut could deploy 8,000 soldiers as part of a ceasefire plan, but also appealed for international support.
The UN resolution originally foresaw Hizbollah’s forces withdrawing north of the Litani river, up to 30km from the border with Israel, with UN peacekeepers and the Lebanese army becoming the only armed presence in the area. It also called for Israel not to violate Lebanon’s airspace.
But Israel is now pushing for Unifil’s mandate to be expanded to cover a wider area to prevent arms and cash being smuggled to Hizbollah, said people familiar with the talks. It also wants Unifil to be able to conduct searches of private property.
Diplomats say Netanyahu’s government wants to prevent Hizbollah — which is Lebanon’s dominant political and military force — from regaining its strength, and to ensure northern Israel is safe to allow about 60,000 displaced people to return home.
Israel also wants a more muscular Lebanese army presence along the borders, something the US and its allies consider critical to reaching a deal.
Israel has issued a “working paper” to the US demanding that in any ceasefire agreement, Israel should be allowed to uphold resolution 1701, using force, if it sees violations by Hizbollah, said a person familiar with the matter.
An Israeli military official said Netanyahu’s government “changed the objective” and “the doctrine and strategy” after escalating its offensive in September.
“What we want to have is a new reality, a new security operational [situation] in the north,” the military official said. “We want to have the ability to impose 1701. We have to have freedom of operations to secure our borders.”
The person familiar with the talks said that “if Israel sees a risk to its civilians then it’s demanding it be allowed to go in and take care of it, because no one else will”.
In the first few years of 1701, Unifil conducted raids and had greater freedom to patrol in southern Lebanon. But following a stand-off and clashes with Hizbollah, the force’s movements became more restricted.
Some diplomats said Israel’s demands could be met with a return to 1701’s original intent, which called for all of Lebanon’s “borders and other points of entry” to be secured.
But enabling Israel to strike against Hizbollah in southern Lebanon as part of any agreement would violate the existing resolution.
Diplomats also warn that it would be extremely difficult to persuade Russia and China, who are members of the UN Security Council, to agree to a western-backed initiative to change Unifil’s mandate.
“The question is how do you provide [changes to Unifil’s mandate] when the UNSC will be very unlikely to produce a more robust mandate for a cessation of fire on the blue line [the de facto border between Lebanon and Israel],” a French diplomat said.
Still, diplomats say they are sympathetic to Israel’s desire for reinforced security guarantees, particularly regarding the Syrian border, which 1701 does not explicitly address.
One workaround being explored would include amending the preamble at the start of the resolution to bolster enforcement mechanisms.
Lebanese politicians, government officials and diplomats said Israel’s demand for freedom of flights over Lebanon was a non-starter for Beirut. They acknowledge that the UN and the Lebanese state have been unable to pull back Hizbollah from the border, but also accuse Israel of persistently violating resolution 1701.
“The Lebanese won’t agree” to what Israel is demanding, said one western diplomat, calling it a “surrender offer”.
The French diplomat said enabling Israel to use force in Lebanon “would be very close to [the situation in] Area C in the [occupied] West Bank where you have full freedom of movement and access for the Israeli forces”.
Lebanese politicians and western diplomats say Hizbollah had indicated last month that it would agree to a 21-day ceasefire proposed by the US and France. But hopes of a truce were dashed after Israel assassinated Nasrallah. Diplomats and Lebanese officials are concerned that the US and Israel have shifted the goalposts on a potential ceasefire deal since then.
Washington has appeared keen to take advantage of Israel’s intensified campaign to debilitate Hizbollah.
“The Americans are fully on board with Israel’s goal of degrading Hizbollah and as Hochstein said, 1701 is not enough to end the war,” said another western diplomat. “What Israel envisions is a fundamental power shift in Lebanon.”
Additional reporting by Chloe Cornish in Beirut, Leila Abboud in Paris and Felicia Schwartz in Washington