“Hezbollah’s continued military buildup and harmful activities have the potential to lead to serious consequences including a renewal of large scale hostilities between the parties,” Erdan wrote in a letter he sent to US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield ahead of the UNSC’s closed door session on tensions at that border held last Thursday.
He urged the UNSC to act to ensure that Hezbollah is disarmed and the UN peacekeeper mission is empowered to freely monitor that border for violation of UNSC Resolution 1701 which set out the cease fire terms that ended the 2006 Second Lebanon War.
UNSC 1701 called for Hezbollah to be disarmed and for the Lebanese Army to be the country’s only military force.
“An effective implementation of UNIFIL’s (UN Interim Force in Lebanon) mandate is critical in order to ensure the stability in south Lebanon and along the Blue Line (Israel-Lebanon border),” Erdan wrote.
At issue for Israel, in particular, has been the limitations Hezbollah and, at times, the Lebanese have placed on UNIFIL’s access and movement.
The UNSC extension of the UNIFIL mandate in August, known as Resolution 2539, had included a provision designed to enhance UNIFIL’s role, but it has not proved effective in guaranteeing UNIFIL the freedom it needs to monitor the border.
“Hezbollah continues to operate a multitude of military installations and positions along the Blue Line. It routinely patrols the area, collects intelligence on IDF activities and carries out attacks against Israeli civilians and soldiers,” Erdan wrote.
“Moreover, Hezbollah systematically deprives UNIFIL of its ability to implement its mandate by restricting its freedom of movement and preventing UNIFIL from accessing locations used for military purposes under the pretext of private property and roads, in order to assure the continuation of its military buildup,” Erdan said.
The IDF has monitored Hezbollah from the Israeli side of the border and found that from the period of October 21, 2020 to February 19, 2021 there were “362 reconnaissance patrols conducted by Hezbollah in proximity of the Blue Line,” Erdan reported.
In addition, he wrote, “the IDF recorded and reported 269 incidents of crossing the Blue Line into Israel, 274 cases of presence of armed individuals who do not belong to the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF), and 13 incidents of rock throwing across the Blue Line towards Israel,” Erdan wrote.
“All of these incidents took place in UNIFIL’s Area of Operation and in clear violation of UNSCR 1701,” he added.
“This dangerous situation poses a threat not only to Israel and its citizens, but also to the people of Lebanon, which Hezbollah uses as human shields to protect its arsenal of over 130,000 rockets and military infrastructure,” Erdan wrote.
He also accused Hezbollah of canceling its “military assets” by operating “a fictitious NGO, ‘Green without Borders,’ as a front for its malign and illicit activities.”
In a report UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres delivered to the UNSC covering that same four-month period, he too complained about limits placed on UNIFIL and called for Hezbollah to be disarmed.
But he reported that both Israel and Hezbollah had violated UNSC Resolution 1701, with Israel in particular violating Lebanese airspace either with drones or with military plans en route to aerial attacks against Iranian-based targets in Syria.