The Israel Defense Forces, or IDF, released footage Sunday of a significant captured Hezbollah weapons cache. The other – perhaps more consequential factor – was not so much what was found, but rather where the Israeli soldiers found it, namely a few dozen meters from a United Nations International Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) outpost.
You might be asking yourself the same question we are: How come Hezbollah is able to embed their weapons just a few meters away from a UNIFIL post? pic.twitter.com/ZlcmW9P3sD
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) October 14, 2024
This weapons store is not the first the IDF has encountered since it began what was supposed to be a limited incursion into Lebanon, although at least two divisions have been added to its fighting strength since that time. The presence of Hezbollah weapons caches pockmarks much of southern Lebanon's terrain; and much of it was successfully carried out under the watchful eye of the very peacekeepers who are supposed to be both disarming the Iranian proxy, and ensuring against their encroachment south of the Litani River.
At least according to the U.N. Resolution 1701 this was the plan. It is likely the sheer scale of the weapons found were meant to be used in an Oct. 7-style infiltration into Israel's Galilee region, led by Hezbollah's commando Radwan force, as per seized documents and equipment, which show this to have been in an advanced stage of planning. As in Gaza, significant weapons stores have been found in civilian homes.
IDF footage of one of the many Hezbollah weapons warehouses uncovered in civilian homes by the 8th BCT.
— Lazar Berman (@Lazar_Berman) October 13, 2024
(Note the mortar shells with Hebrew writing on the case) pic.twitter.com/Z4T5mOnRPG
It is impossible to escape the realization that under both the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) in Gaza, and UNIFIL in Lebanon, genocidal jihadist Islamist organizations – both of which Iran trains and funds – have been able to arm themselves to the point where Hamas, in the case of Gaza could storm across Israel's border, and Hezbollah in Lebanon has been able to fire missiles, rockets, and drones – the most recent of which killed four Israeli soldiers on Sunday – for more than a year. When is it permissible to ask what good are these U.N. bodies, which not only fail – seemingly deliberately – to fulfill their actual mandates, but facilitate the terrorism against which the IDF is fighting?
This has serious real-world consequences, not least because there is currently an extensive diplomatic dispute between Israel, the United Nations, and countries whose troops make up part of the UNIFIL mission.
In Israel, which considers it is fighting an existential war for its survival, there is a sense the UNIFIL soldiers have had it good for too long; they have turned a blind eye – and who knows, may even have profited from doing so – to Hezbollah's flagrant contravention of the U.N. resolution they are supposed to uphold.
The IDF says it has located a Hezbollah weapons cache 500 meters away from a UNIFIL position.
— Joe Truzman (@JoeTruzman) October 13, 2024
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As the IDF pushes into southern Lebanon, UNIFIL's lack of enforcement against Hezbollah is becoming clear. It begs the question as to what has UNIFIL being doing since '06? pic.twitter.com/RVS70O3cSp
On Sunday, Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appealed directly to the U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, requesting – rather than demanding as Irish president Michael Higgins suggested about the Irish contingent – that UNIFIL troops be moved away from "Hezbollah strongholds and the firing zone," according to an official readout.
"The IDF has requested this repeatedly and has met with repeated refusal, which has the effect of providing Hezbollah terrorists with human shields. Your refusal to evacuate UNIFIL soldiers has turned them into hostages of Hezbollah. This endangers both them and the lives of our soldiers," he added.
PM Netanyahu: "I appeal to the UN Secretary General; Your refusal to evacuate UNIFIL soldiers has turned them into hostages of Hezbollah."
— Prime Minister of Israel (@IsraeliPM) October 13, 2024
Full remarks >>https://t.co/YOUp2Yvw20 pic.twitter.com/tfSGX83bwr
UNIFIL has accused the IDF of deliberately hitting several posts, including the Naqoura HQ. At least five UNIFIL soldiers have been wounded in a spate of recent incidents that have also included shootings which the UN neither attributed to the IDF or Hezbollah, which reading between the lines, almost certainly means it was the Lebanese-based terrorists.
Netanyahu said Israel "regrets the injury" to the peacekeepers, and it is doing whatever it can to prevent such incidents.
"But the simple and obvious way to ensure this is just get them out of the danger zone," the prime minister added. Indeed, according to the IDF, some 25 attacks against Israel have been launched from the vicinity of UNIFIL posts.
Acc. to IDF, Hezbollah carried out 25 attacks over the past month against Israeli civilians and troops from near UNIFIL positions.
— Lazar Berman (@Lazar_Berman) October 13, 2024
2 IDF troops were killed in one of the attacks, says @AvichayAdraee https://t.co/xGJRyBAqTi
Meanwhile, in the wake of the deadly drone strike on an army base in Israel's Binyamina region on Sunday, the Israeli Air Force has made it a top priority to eradicate Hezbollah's 127 Unit, which is responsible for UAV production and operation. Earlier on Monday, the IAF eliminated the head of the Radwan anti-tank missile unit, Muhammad Kamal Naim, in the southern Lebanese area of Nabatieh.
