A major international conference on Lebanon was held in Paris at the initiative of France on Thursday, October 24, and the question of revising the mandate of the 10,000 or so peacekeepers in the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) was one of the main topics of discussion. Since the start of the Israeli offensive in the south of the country on September 23, UNIFIL – which includes some 700 French soldiers – has been effectively unable to carry out its mandate. It is also increasingly exposed to the escalating conflict between the Israeli army and Hezbollah.

In a joint statement on Wednesday, defense ministers from the 15 European countries contributing troops to UNIFIL reiterated their "grave concern" at the escalation of violence along the Blue Line, the demarcation line which the peacekeepers are supposed to protect from hostilities since a mandate issued during the last Lebanon war in 2006. "We condemn the targeting of all UNIFIL peacekeepers, in violation of the fundamental principles of international law," denounced France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, the Netherlands and Poland.

On October 16, an Israeli army Merkava tank hit a watchtower of a UNIFIL position near the town of Kfar Kila. Two cameras were destroyed and the watchtower was damaged, said UNIFIL in a statement. Two days earlier, UNIFIL had already denounced the "forced" entry of two Israeli tanks into one of its positions, causing two injuries. A simple accident, according to the Israeli army, which stated that the two tanks were backing up at the time of the incident, in order to "evacuate injured soldiers while still under fire." But on October 11, two more peacekeepers were wounded by Israeli army fire in the immediate vicinity of their watchtower.

In southern Lebanon, "UNIFIL is now right in the middle of the firing range," as one seasoned observer put it. "Before September 23, the logic between Israel and Hezbollah was 'an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth'," described a French lieutenant embedded within UNIFIL, who is head of an engineering section. "There was a kind of controlled escalation. In practice, it was mainly a strip of 3 to 5 kilometers, almost emptied of its inhabitants, that was hit. But since then, they've changed their approach. The air strikes are day and night and, since October 1, there's been a real change, with ground fighting that can be observed at close quarters, without binoculars."

Being in immediate proximity to the fighting is currently paralyzing the activities of the peacekeepers. "Even fulfilling their role as firefighters, clearing roads, stopping fires, rescuing people from the rubble, or providing humanitarian aid has become very complicated," explained Amélie Ferey, a specialist in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and researcher at the French Institute of International Relations (IFRI). "We are carrying out movements in a more restricted way than before September 23. Conditions have deteriorated, but we're still going out every day," said Colonel Christophe Maurin, commander of the French forces on site.

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