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DAILY DOSE | A video surfaced from a year ago of Hezbollah affiliates attacking a pair UNIFIL trucks approaching a gate, leading to one of the peacekeeping soldiers surrendering his rifle. Meanwhile, Israel continues to strike targets it deems a concern to its security. INSS' Yoram Schweitzer analyzes.
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Israel and the United States are reportedly putting pressure on the United Nations to increase its number of peacekeeping troops of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, known as UNIFIL, ahead of a vote on the matter on Thursday.
The UN’s deployment of troops in southern Lebanon is approved in an annual vote. However this year, the Security Council is expected to formally review the size of the forces and allow cuts to be considered, three officials told The New York Times on Wednesday.
The countries that fill in the UNIFIL troop quotas have long pushed for fewer forces, in part as a cost-cutting measure, reported The Times.
The vote comes amid increased tensions on the Israel-Lebanon border, as Hezbollah warned Israel recently it will retaliate with a “calculated strike,” after two drones reportedly exploded at a site of the group in Beirut overnight Saturday.
Israel and the US have been requesting for years UNIFIL exert its force with more efficiency, report and investigate Hezbollah activity on the border from the Lebanese side.
Both countries consider the Iran-backed Shiite political and paramilitary group as a terrorist organization.
Spokesperson for the Israeli Embassy in Washington Elad Strohmayer referred to the subject in a piece for The Times of Israel, citing an incident, caught on footage by Fox News earlier in August, of Hezbollah men attacking a UN peacekeeper vehicle and setting it on fire.
“Hezbollah restricts UNIFIL from carrying out its role as a UN peacekeeping force, and the footage… showing Hezbollah terrorists attacking a UNIFIL patrol in Southern Lebanon is just the latest example of many,” wrote Strohmayer.
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