Attachments
I. Introduction
1. The present report provides a comprehensive assessment of the implementation of Security Council resolution 1701 (2006) since the previous report, issued on 12 July 2024 (S/2024/548). The exchanges of fire across the Blue Line between Hizbullah and other non-State armed groups in Lebanon and the Israel Defense Forces, in repeated breach of the cessation of hostilities and in violation of resolution 1701 (2006), escalated dramatically during the reporting period, resulting in deteriorating conditions that are moving further away from those envisaged by the Council in resolution 1701 (2006). The launch by the Israel Defense Forces of Operation Northern Arrows on 23 September, with ground operations north of the Blue Line starting on 1 October, represented a new phase of the conflict. Heavy Israeli bombardments across Lebanon, including in Beirut, led to significant casualties, displacement and destruction. Intensified attacks by Hizbullah further into Israel also resulted in casualties and damage to civilian infrastructure. The dramatic escalation of the hostilities starkly underscored the urgency of an immediate return to the cessation of hostilities and the long-term imperative for progress towards a permanent ceasefire between Lebanon and Israel.
II. Implementation of resolution 1701 (2006)
A. Situation in the area of operations of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon
2. From 21 June to 22 September, the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) recorded 2,531 trajectories of projectiles fired from within the area of operations from north to south of the Blue Line and 3,332 from south to north of the Blue Line, as well as 276 air attacks by the Israel Defense Forces. For the same period, UNIFIL detected a total of 216 trajectories of projectiles fired from north of the Litani River – outside the mission’s area of operations – towards Israel and the Israelioccupied Syrian Golan on 15 occasions. From 23 September to 20 October, UNIFIL detected 2,316 trajectories fired from within the area of operations from north to south and 15,481 trajectories from south to north of the Blue Line, and 942 air attacks by the Israel Defense Forces. For the same 28-day period, the mission detected a total of 378 trajectories of projectiles fired from north of the Litani River on 65 occasions. Each trajectory can represent multiple projectiles. Almost all trajectories recorded were of rockets, mortar bombs and artillery shells. UNIFIL radars cannot detect some types of projectiles, such as air-to-surface missiles, tank rounds, portable anti-tank missiles or projectiles fired from light weapons. UNIFIL could not verify the large number of strikes that were reported to have impacted elsewhere in Lebanon during the reporting period.
3. On 15 October, UNIFIL detected 1,279 trajectories, the highest number for a single day since 8 October 2023. Of these, 71 trajectories were from north to south and 1,208 were from south to north of the Blue Line. The peak before 23 September was on 25 August when Hizbullah launched Operation Day of Arba‘in in its stated response to the killing of commander Fuad Shukr (see paras. 7 and 8), with 146 trajectories from north to south and 119 from south to north.
4. Hizbullah claimed responsibility for multiple attacks on targets in northern Israel and the Israeli-occupied Syrian Golan, using rockets, missiles, artillery and drones. After 1 October, Hizbullah and the Israel Defense Forces also clashed within the UNIFIL area of operations (north of the Blue Line). On 13 October, Hizbullah claimed 38 operations, the highest daily number since 8 October 2023.
5. Throughout the reporting period, the Israel Defense Forces conducted strikes on Hizbullah commanders, including in residential buildings. On 3 July, Mohammad Neameh Nasser was the first of several Hizbullah commanders to be killed during the reporting period, in a drone strike by Israel Defense Forces in a residential area in Tyre (Sector West).
6. On 27 July, 12 children were killed and dozens wounded in Majdal Shams, located in the Israeli-occupied Syrian Golan. In a letter dated 29 July addressed to the President of the Security Council, the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Israel, Israel Katz, stated: “On 27 July 2024, Hezbollah launched numerous rockets from Lebanon into Israeli territory, targeting civilians in the Druze village of Majdal Shams. This attack resulted in the murder of twelve children and teenagers who were innocently playing soccer, with approximately thirty other civilians injured”. Hizbullah stated that it had “no connection with the incident whatsoever”. Although UNIFIL could not verify the full sequence of events, as the site of impact was outside its area of responsibility, it did detect the trajectory of a projectile, assessed to be a 122 mm rocket, crossing the Blue Line around the time in question that day, with a point of origin in the Shab‘a Farms area and with a calculated point of impact 836 m from the soccer field in Majdal Shams.
7. On 30 July, the Israel Defense Forces killed the Hizbullah commander Fuad Shukr in an air strike in the densely populated southern suburbs of Beirut. In identical letters dated 31 July addressed to the President of the Security Council and to the Secretary-General (A/78/977-S/2024/587), the Chargé d’affaires a.i. of the Permanent Mission of Lebanon to the United Nations stated that “at 1930 hours on 30 July 2024, Israel targeted a residential building near Bahman Hospital, in the Harat Hurayk area in the southern suburbs of Beirut, causing major destruction. Five civilians, including 1 woman and 2 children, were killed and more than 75 other civilians were injured”. On 1 August, the Secretary-General of Hizbullah, Hassan Nasrallah, vowed revenge.
8. On 25 August, UNIFIL recorded 85 air strikes by the Israel Defense Forces, mostly in Sector West. The Israel Defense Forces subsequently stated that they had conducted “pre-emptive” air strikes against over 270 Hizbullah targets. Shortly thereafter, Hizbullah launched hundreds of rockets and drones into Israel in its stated response to the killing of Mr. Shukr.
9. On 17 and 18 September, simultaneous explosions of thousands of pagers and handheld radios primarily used by Hizbullah caused at least 40 fatalities, including those of two children, and over 3,400 injuries, including to the Ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Iran to Lebanon. In identical letters dated 19 September addressed to the President of the Security Council and the Secretary-General (A/79/367-S/2024/685), the Chargé d’affaires a.i. of the Permanent Mission of Lebanon to the United Nations stated that this “large-scale cyberattack […] targeting thousands of people of different age groups in large and densely populated areas such as the South, Nabatiyah, Mount Lebanon, Beirut, and the Bekaa […] is a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law and human rights, and should be classified as a war crime”.
10. On 20 September, the Hizbullah commander Ibrahim Aqil was killed in an Israel Defense Forces air strike in the densely populated southern suburbs of Beirut. According to the Ministry of Public Health of Lebanon, the strike, which led to the collapse of two residential buildings, caused 55 fatalities, including those of women and children, with more than 66 injured. The same day, Hizbullah conducted missile strikes in the vicinity of Haifa. In a letter dated 23 September addressed to the President of the Security Council, Mr. Katz stated that “Hezbollah carried out a largescale, indiscriminate attack on the Haifa region”.
11. On 23 September, the Israel Defense Forces launched Operation Northern Arrows, with hundreds of air strikes across Lebanon, especially in the UNIFIL area of operations. The Israel Defense Forces stated that they had hit over 1,300 Hizbullah targets. The Ministry of Public Health of Lebanon stated that at least 558 people, including 50 children and 94 women, were killed that day. The strikes also caused mass displacement and widespread damage to civilian infrastructure.
12. The Israel Defense Forces continued heavy bombardment across Lebanon up to 20 October, including in the UNIFIL area of operations, in densely populated urban centres such as the southern suburbs of Beirut, Baalbek, Nabatiyah and Sidon, and across the Biqa‘, causing further displacement and casualties.
13. On 27 September, the Israel Defense Forces stated that they had killed the Secretary-General of Hizbullah, Mr. Nasrallah, along with several Hizbullah commanders, including Ali Karaki, commander of Hizbullah’s southern front, in a strike on “the Central Headquarters of the Hezbollah terrorist organization, embedded under residential buildings in the heart of the Dahieh in Beirut”. The bombing levelled at least four residential buildings, causing at least 38 fatalities, including that of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander Abbas Nilforoushan, with dozens more wounded or missing. On 28 September, Hizbullah confirmed the death of Mr. Nasrallah.
14. On 28 September, the Israel Defense Forces stated that they had “targeted missile storage facilities belonging to Hizbullah that were buried under six civilian buildings in Dahieh”. In another strike that day on the southern suburbs of Beirut, the Israel Defense Forces stated that it had killed Nabil Qaouk, the deputy head of Hizbullah’s executive council. On 29 September, 72 people, all civilians, were killed following air strikes in Sidon, according to the Ministry of Public Health of Lebanon. On 3 October, the Israel Defense Forces struck what they said was Hizbullah’s “central intelligence headquarters” in the southern suburbs of Beirut, killing Hashem Safieddine, head of Hizbullah’s executive council, and several others. Israeli strikes on central Beirut, including on the Islamic Health Authority in Bashurah on 3 October, as well as in Nuwayri and Ra’s al-Nab‘ on 10 October, resulted in dozens of fatalities and injuries to hundreds of people. Twenty-three people displaced from South Lebanon, including 12 women and two children, were killed in an Israeli strike on Aytu, Zagharta district, on 14 October. On 16 October, Israeli strikes on the Nabatiyah municipal building killed 16 people, including the mayor, and injured 53. The Israel Defense Forces stated that on 20 October they had carried out strikes across Lebanon against branches of the Al-Qard al-Hassan Association, a Hizbullah-affiliated financial institution.
15. In identical letters dated 15 October addressed to the President of the Security Council and to the Secretary-General (A/79/538-S/2024/749), the Chargé d’affaires a.i. of the Permanent Mission of Lebanon to the United Nations stated that “the scale of the destruction in the wake of Israeli air strikes is staggering. They slice right through residential buildings and leave behind craters dozens of metres deep. That suggests they are using depleted-uranium bombs”.
16. On 30 September, the Israel Defense Forces urged UNIFIL to vacate its 29 positions located within 5 km of the Blue Line, except the mission headquarters at Naqurah, and on 1 October announced that they had started “limited, localized, and targeted ground raids based on precise intelligence against Hezbollah terrorist targets and infrastructure in southern Lebanon. These targets are located in villages close to the border and pose an immediate threat to Israeli communities in northern Israel”. In identical letters dated 2 October addressed to the President of the Security Council and to the Secretary-General (A/79/396-S/2024/715), the Chargé d’affaires a.i. of the Permanent Mission of Lebanon to the United Nations stated that “advance raids began on the night of 1 October 2024. Israel has massed troops, tank columns and armoured vehicles along the southern border of Lebanon”.
17. UNIFIL observed the Israel Defense Forces cross north of the Blue Line in the vicinity of Arab al-Luwayzah and Udaysah on 1 October and near Kfar Kila (all Sector East) on 2 October. Exchanges of fire between the Israel Defense Forces and Hizbullah subsequently occurred in the vicinity of Bint Jubayl, Marun al-Ra’s and Yarun (all Sector West). On 7 October, UNIFIL observed clashes near Labunnah (Sector West). On 8 October, it observed the Israel Defense Forces crossing the Blue Line near Mays al-Jabal (Sector East), followed by clashes with Hizbullah. Further incursions were observed near Ramiyah (Sector West) and Shab‘a (Sector East). By 20 October, clashes had been observed in the areas of Ayta al-Sha‘b, Marwahin and Ramiyah (all Sector West) and Markaba and Udaysah (both Sector East). UNIFIL also observed Israel Defense Forces naval vessels in the vicinity of Lebanese territorial waters, firing into the mission’s area of operations near Labunnah on several occasions after 23 September.
18. Residential areas and civilian infrastructure in the UNIFIL area of operations were increasingly impacted by air strikes after 23 September, rendering many neighbourhoods and villages uninhabitable. Electricity and water infrastructure was heavily damaged in Ayta al-Sha‘b, Hanawiye and Ma‘rub (all Sector West) as well as in Khiyam and Marji‘yun (both Sector East). At least 14 medical workers were reportedly killed and medical facilities, ambulances and civil defence centres damaged by Israeli strikes in the UNIFIL area of operations. Air strikes on civil defence centres reportedly led to 35 fatalities during the reporting period. On 5 October, the hospitals in Marji‘yun and Bint Jubayl shut down, leaving only one functioning hospital in southern Lebanon, in Tibnin. The Israel Defense Forces issued statements advising residents of at least 67 villages in South Lebanon to move north of the Awali River (outside of the area of operations). The Israel Defense Forces also warned people against using boats in Lebanese territorial waters south of the Awali River. Over 110 displacement notices were issued by the Israel Defense Forces across Lebanon.
19. In identical letters dated 5 September addressed to the President of the Security Council and to the Secretary-General (A/78/1000-S/2024/657), the Chargé d’affaires a.i. of the Permanent Mission of Lebanon to the United Nations stated that “more than 75 per cent of trajectories of projectiles fired across the Blue Line since 8 October 2023 originated south of the Blue Line, that is, on the Israeli side […] Israeli bombardment has resulted in […] the displacement of more than 111,000 residents of southern villages. Over 3,000 housing units have been destroyed and some 32,000 more have suffered damage”.
20. Civilian casualties were reported in Israel following strikes from Lebanon. The most affected population centres were near the Blue Line, including Manara, Qiryat Shmona and Shtula. After 23 September, Haifa, Tiberias and Tel Aviv were also impacted. In a letter dated 10 October addressed to the President of the Security Council, Mr. Katz stated that “Hezbollah have fired over 13,000 projectiles, 1,500 anti-tank missiles, and hundreds of explosive drones at Israeli communities forcing over 63,000 people to evacuate their homes. This war which was imposed on Israel resulted up until now in 51 casualties, over 372 injured […] One year later, on October 1, 2024, the [Israel Defense Forces] initiated targeted, limited raid operations in Southern Lebanon aimed at Hezbollah military assets and infrastructures along the Blue Line”. He added that “hundreds of terrorists have been eliminated including Hezbollah’s senior chain of command and Radwan commanders and operatives. More than 700 Hezbollah terror assets in Lebanon such as tunnels, weaponry, missiles, and launchers – all embedded in the heart of civilian areas – have been uncovered and destroyed”.
21. As at 20 October, Israeli authorities reported 30 Israel Defense Forces fatalities from strikes by Hizbullah south of the Blue Line since 8 October 2023 and 16 fatalities north of the Blue Line since 1 October 2024.
22. The Lebanese Armed Forces incurred at least seven fatalities as well as damage to assets and infrastructure following Israeli strikes in the UNIFIL area of operations.
23. The Israel Defense Forces continued to enter Lebanese airspace daily, in violation of resolution 1701 (2006) and of Lebanese sovereignty. From 21 June to 22 September, UNIFIL recorded 1,892 air violations by the Israel Defense Forces, totalling 7,251 hours in overflight time. From 23 September to 20 October, UNIFIL recorded 1,293 air violations by the Israel Defense Forces, totalling 7,450 hours in overflight time. Drones accounted for approximately 57 per cent of the violations, fighter aircraft 42 per cent and helicopters and unidentified aircraft 1 per cent. The highest number of daily air violations, 70, was detected on 17 October.
24. Hizbullah reportedly increased its use of offensive drones on targets in Israel. UNIFIL was unable to verify such reports, however. The deadliest such attack occurred on 13 October when four Israel Defense Forces personnel were killed and dozens wounded in Binyamina, south of Haifa. Hizbullah also stated that it had launched surface-to-air missiles at Israel Defense Forces fighter aircraft and a helicopter on at least six occasions. UNIFIL detected the launch of a surface -to-air missile towards Israel Defense Forces fighter jets from the vicinity of Burj Qallawiyah (Sector West) on 25 July.
25. Until 22 September, UNIFIL maintained a visible presence and a high operational tempo despite the exchanges of fire across the Blue Line. From 23 September, to ensure the safety and security of its personnel, peacekeepers spent long periods of time in shelter. The mission’s freedom of movement (see annex I)* to undertake mandated activities was severely restricted from 23 September, more so from 1 October, inhibiting mobile operations and its monitoring and reporting capacity. Prior to 23 September, there were several incidents of denial of freedom of movement that the Lebanese Armed Forces helped to resolve through dialogue with the individuals concerned.
26. From 21 June to 22 September, the Mission conducted a monthly average of 13,671 operational activities, including 5,221 vehicular patrols. Sixteen per cent of UNIFIL operational patrols involved at least one woman peacekeeper. The average percentage of UNIFIL operations conducted in close coordination with the Lebanese Armed Forces, among the activities that could be, was 16.8 per cent, compared with 18.6 per cent for the previous reporting period (see S/2024/548, para. 25). This included an average of 2,179 Blue Line vehicle patrols and 547 counter-rocket launching patrols each month. In addition, UNIFIL maintained eight permanent checkpoints, including on the main entry routes into the area of operations. From 21 June to 20 October, UNIFIL, independently or in close coordination with the Lebanese Armed Forces, discovered unauthorized weapons on 30 occasions, mostly abandoned mobile rocket launching platforms and rockets. The Lebanese Armed Forces were informed of all such weapons located. Foot patrols, temporary checkpoints, market walks and air operations remained suspended, except for a limited number of foot patrols in areas sufficiently distant from the Blue Line. From 23 September to 20 October, UNIFIL conducted only 94 vehicular patrols.
27. Due to the continued exchanges of fire and contamination of the terrain with unexploded ordnance and remnants of war, UNIFIL was not able to monitor all areas, including locations of interest, on a systematic basis.
28. UNIFIL started 18 technical investigations related to impacts on UNIFIL personnel, assets or premises, concluding 9. The results of the concluded investigations were shared with the parties. Seven cases were initiated after 23 September.
29. Pursuant to the strategic dialogue process, focused on support to the Lebanese Armed Forces and the Lebanese Armed Forces-Navy, UNIFIL conducted 149 joint training exercises and activities with the Lebanese Armed Forces ground forces and 110 with naval units from 21 June to 20 October.
30. The UNIFIL Maritime Task Force continued to support maritime interdiction operations, hailing 2,265 vessels from 21 June to 20 October. All 431 vessels referred for inspection by UNIFIL were cleared by the Lebanese Armed Forces. The Lebanese Armed Forces-Navy continued to assume command functions for maritime interdiction operations, with support from the UNIFIL Maritime Task Force. On 17 October, an uncrewed aerial vehicle of unknown origin approached a Maritime Task Force vessel off the southern Lebanese coast. In accordance with established procedure, the vessel used electronic countermeasures, after which the drone fell and exploded.