Why is hostility toward UNIFIL on the rise?

A new video circulated on social media Thursday evening showed residents in southern Lebanon preventing vehicles of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) from entering certain areas and forcing them to turn back. The footage, filmed at the Abbasieh intersection in the Sour district, follows similar incidents earlier this week in Tayr Debba, also in the Sour district, and in Jmaijmeh, in the Bint Jbeil district.UNIFIL’s commander-in-chief said Friday the force “will always stand by the Lebanese people (...) within the framework of its mandate and U.N. Resolution 1701.”The 2006 resolution ended the war between Israel and Hezbollah and remains the legal basis for the cease-fire agreement signed on Nov. 27, 2024, between Israel and the party. Among other provisions, the resolution calls for the dismantling of Hezbollah’s...