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Concern follows France, Italy decide to withdraw significant number of troops from the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon. Israel is growing concerned that UNIFIL, the multi-national peacekeeping force in Lebanon, is headed toward collapse with a French decision this week to withdraw a significant number of its troops. Following the Second Lebanon War in 2006, Israel succeeded in getting a number of European countries to contribute soldiers to the peacekeeping force, whose mandate was also beefed up as part of an international effort to prevent Hezbollah’s rearmament. The force was bolstered to include 12,000 soldiers in comparison to the few...

Friday's attack on a French contingent of UNIFIL was a message from Syria, former prime minister Saad Hariri said over the weekend. "Another #Syrian message," Hariri tweeted Saturday in response to a question seeking comment on the attack. "Another #syrian message from Bashar," he later said. Five French peacekeepers with the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon were wounded Friday when a roadside bomb ripped through their vehicle as they travelled in Bourj al-Shemali, near the southern coastal city of Tyre. The attack was condemned by Lebanese officials, including Prime Minister Najib Mikati, President Michel Sleiman and Hezbollah. Both the...

A bomb exploded near a UNIFIL peacekeeping patrol on Friday, wounding five French soldiers in southern Lebanon, a witness and security sources said. The blast, which hit a jeep carrying the French peacekeepers on the outskirts of the city of Tyre, was the third attack on the UNIFIL forces deployed to keep the peace along Lebanon's southern frontier with Israel.

Fatah/Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades unity?The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades is a recognized foreign terrorist organization.They are also the official military wing of Fatah.Fatah, the main faction of the PLO, runs the Palestinian Authority [PA].Excerpt from the Palestinian Anti-Terrorism Act of 2006 signed into law by President Bush in Nov. 2006:["Under the "Limitations of Asistance to the Palestinian Authority", [Section 620K], of the Palestinian Anti-Terrorism Act of 2006, in order for the PA to receive U.S. financial aid, the POTUS must certify to Congress that no foreign terrorist organization, or members of a foreign terrorist organization serve in any capacity or instrumentality of the PA".] There can be no...

The Israeli cabinet has authorized the pull-out from one of the most sensitive locations along the border with Lebanon, the village of Ghajar. Control of the territory would then be transferred to the UNIFIL, which would also be responsible for preventing terrorists and criminals from crossing through the village.

Top 10 Reasons I Hate the UN10. UNESCO: United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural OrganizationMay 28, 2009:I’d think that seriously advocating book burning at any time would disqualify you, since presumably there are equally qualified candidates for the UN’s cultural heritage agency who’ve never advocated destroying cultural heritage. But Israeli society is toxic anyway – especially compared to the glory that is the contemporary Egyptian public sphere – so no loss:Egyptian Culture Minister Farouk Hosni, a candidate for the top job at the United Nations culture agency UNESCO, apologised on Wednesday for calling for Israeli books to be burnt… Hosni...

Amid growing fears of another Middle East war, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has thrown down the gauntlet for Israel by vowing to hammer Ben-Gurion Airport if Beirut's Rafik Hariri International is hit, as it was in their last conflict in 2006. That was not likely an idle boast. Nasrallah was unusually specific in what targets Hezbollah would hit, thus signaling its capabilities. "He's never been as detailed and candid," said Lebanese political scientist and Hezbollah expert Amal Saad-Ghorayeb of the American University of Beirut. According to Israel's military intelligence, Hezbollah has in excess of 42,000 rockets and missiles stashed away,...

Hezbollah has dispersed its long-range-rocket sites deep into northern Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley, a move that analysts say threatens to broaden any future conflict between the Islamist movement and Israel into a war between the two countries. More than 10,000 U.N. troops now patrol traditional Hezbollah territory in southern Lebanon along the Israeli border, and several thousand Lebanese armed forces personnel also have moved into the area. A cross-border raid by Hezbollah guerrillas in summer 2006 triggered a month-long war that prompted the United Nations to deploy its force as part of a cease-fire. The United Nations is confident...

(IsraelNN.com) Lebanese newspaper An Nahar revealed on Sunday that UNIFIL forces located in South Lebanon were notified in advance that terrorists were going to hit Israel, but UNIFIL failed to inform the Jewish State. According to the paper, numerous sources informed UNIFIL of the attack ten days before it was launched, and UNIFIL even relayed the information to the Lebanese army two days before it happened.

The Lebanese Army helped Hezbollah militants destroy evidence of its continued military activity in the south of the country after a hidden arms cache exploded there earlier this week, Israel's envoy to the United Nations has charged in an official complaint. In a letter to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Gabriela Shalev described the abandoned building in which the explosion took place as "an arms cache that consisted of Hezbollah arms, including rockets, mortars, artillery shells, grenades, and additional ammunition which had been brought to the area following the Second Lebanon War." According to Shalev, the incident proves that Hezbollah...

A day after Israel cried foul over an explosion that uncovered a hidden Hizbullah arms cache in southern Lebanon, the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon said Wednesday that ammunition which had exploded in a southern Lebanon village was a "serious violation" of the UN-brokered ceasefire that ended the Second Lebanon War in 2006. The blast occurred inside the village of Hirbet Selm on Tuesday, some 20 kilometers north of the Israel-Lebanon border, south of the Litani River and within the area which falls under the mandate of the UNIFIL multi-national force. The explosion caused no casualties but highlighted the long-held...

(IsraelNN.com) United Nations Forces in Lebanon (UNIFIL) may have been involved in arresting Lebanese citizens suspected of spying for Israel. The story was reported Thursday by Spanish media and by Israel's Channel 10 news. Channel 10 obtained video footage in which a Spanish UNIFIL commander states that his troops worked with Lebanese troops to arrest alleged spies for Israel in primarily Shiite Muslim areas. The taped conversation allegedly took place two days ago

"HAMAS AND THEIR SYSTEMATIC VIOLATION OF INTERNATIONAL LAWS (NOT TO MENTION BASIC HUMAN DECENCY)" "Video follows"

(IsraelNN.com) Syrian paper Al-Watan reported Monday that the Lebanese army and UNIFIL are on high alert in Southern Lebanon. They are patrolling the border to make sure Hizbullah does not launch rockets against Israel. Claudio Grazino, commander of UNIFIL forces, spoke to the Lebanese Prime Minister and warned him that they must prevent another front from developing in the current war.

Lebanese authorities discovered seven missiles aimed at Israel in southern Lebanon, an official Lebanese news agency reported Thursday. The missiles are currently under inspection to determine whether they were enabled for launch, and they will subsequently be dismantled, the news agency reported. The missiles were found five kilometers from Lebanon's border with Israel, in an area which is considered a Hezbollah stronghold but is officially under the jurisdiction of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), in accordance with UN Security Council resolution 1701. Under the terms of the UN resolution, it is forbidden to station weapons in this...

The Lebanese daily Al-Mustaqbal reports that Lebanese security apparatuses and the Lebanese army have recently received reports on intentions to strike at UNIFIL in southern Lebanon.

An independent Lebanon-based monitoring group on Saturday rebuffed United Nations’ assertions that Israel is the only violator of the Security Council Resolution that ended the 2006 Second Lebanon War, and accused international peacekeepers of cooperating with Hizballah. The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) has become a “hostage of Hizballah,” and is anything but fulfilling its mandate, charged Toni Nissi, general coordinator of the International-Lebanese Committee for UN Security Council Resolution 1559, during a press conference in New York.

(IsraelNN.com) The Hizbullah terrorist group slammed the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) on Tuesday night for its intention to rescue any Israel Air Force pilot whose aircraft is shot down over Lebanon. According to a report published by the Lebanese daily newspaper al-Akhbar, Commander Claudio Graziano distributed to his troops a contingency plan in which UNIFIL soldiers would aim to reach the pilot before the terrorists could get to him. Failing that, if the pilot is captured by guerrilla forces, Plan B is an attempt to rescue him from enemy hands. However, if the pilot is being held...

The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) is intentionally concealing information about Hezbollah activities south of the Litani River in Lebanon to avoid conflict with the group, senior sources in Jerusalem have said. In the last six months there have been at least four cases in which UNIFIL soldiers identified armed Hezbollah operatives, but did nothing and did not submit full reports on the incidents to the UN Security Council. The Israel Defense Forces and the Foreign Ministry are reportedly very angry about UNIFIL's actions in recent months, especially about the fact that its commander, Major General Claudio Graziano,...

With Lebanon in political deadlock and Hizbullah threatening to renew hostilities with Israel, defense officials in Tel Aviv expressed concern on Monday that European countries will gradually reduce their participation in UNIFIL over the coming year.