(August 13, 2026)

In August 2025, the Security Council unanimously decided to extend the mandate of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), which first deployed in 1978, one final time until the end of 2026, when it would begin a phased withdrawal. That decision came before the latest escalation of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah in March 2026—and before Israeli forces displaced hundreds of thousands of civilians and occupied large swathes of southern Lebanon. Deliberate acts of displacement may amount to the war crime of forced displacement.

“Pulling the plug on UNIFIL without a robust international force in place would effectively abandon millions of Lebanese civilians to an uncertain and potentially disastrous fate,” said Louis Charbonneau, UN director at Human Rights Watch. “UN missions may not be a lasting solution, but the peacekeepers are a crucial deterrent against attacks on civilians and human rights abuses.”