UN confirms no plans to expand peacekeepers in Lebanon amid Israeli strikes

United Nations, New York — The United Nations' peacekeepers in southern Lebanon, where Israel continues its bombardment, have not relocated to new positions and the world body is assessing the situation before sending more peacekeepers to the region, a top UN official told TRT World.

"I think right now, really, the priority is to achieve that very much needed de-escalation in Lebanon," Jean-Pierre Lacroix, the under-secretary-general for peace operations at the United Nations, told TRT World on Tuesday on the sidelines of UNGA.

"Once hopefully that is achieved, we will see," he said, while urging both sides to de-escalate the ongoing fighting.

Lacroix, who has over 25 years of experience in diplomacy and politics, said the UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon are currently staying in their area of mission and have not relocated.

"They're not repositioning. They're staying in the area of operation," Lacroix said.

The UN Under-Secretary-general for peace operations said while the peacekeepers are protecting themselves, they are trying to implement their role as peacekeepers at the same time.

"Whenever they have an opportunity to continue implementing their mandate and playing their role as peacekeepers, they do," he said.

The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon or UNIFIL — consisting of more than 10,000 personnel from some 50 countries — was created by the UN Security Council in 1978 to confirm Israeli troops withdrawal from Lebanon, restore peace and security, and assist Beirut in restoring its effective authority in the area near border with Israel.

Since last October, the UN peacekeepers have found themselves in the middle of daily clashes between Israeli army and Lebanon's Hezbollah group, which has depopulated civilian areas on both sides of the combustible Israel-Lebanon border.

Hezbollah says it will only stop targeting Israeli military sites when Tel Aviv ends its war on Gaza. Israel has vowed to return thousands of Israelis to the northern areas who fled the clashes since October 2023.

On Monday, Israel bombed many areas of Lebanon, killing nearly 500 people, wounding thousands, and raising the spectre of a new Israel-Lebanon war.

"The problem is that what we're seeing now is a very dangerous turn towards military escalation, which obviously will lead us in the region to war devastation and more losses of rights so that we need to stop that," Lacroix said.