Residents of northern Israel evacuated after Hezbollah attacks call on US, UN to enforce Security Council Resolution 1701.
By Susan Tawil, World Israel News
The residents evacuated from their homes along Israel’s northern border with Lebanon are lobbying the Biden administration and the United Nations to ensure the enforcement of a UN Security Council resolution aimed at securing the Israel-Lebanon frontier.
Since the atrocities of the Hamas terrorist attack on Israeli civilians on October 7, over 200,000 Israelis living in towns bordering the Gaza Strip and Lebanon have been displaced, due to the danger of missiles and other terrorist attacks on their communities.
After living as refugees for over 80 days, the 60,000 evacuees from northern Israeli cities bordering Lebanon have formed an organization called Lobby 1701.
The number references the resolution passed by the UN Security council to end the Israel-Lebanon War in 2006, and to stop the attacks on Israel by Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed terrorist group in Lebanon.
The resolution is still in effect, and members of Lobby 1701 have appealed to the UN and the U.S. to demand that its conditions be enforced.
United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1701 was unanimously approved as an end to the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah in August of 2006. It was accepted by both Lebanon’s and Israel’s cabinets.
The resolution called for:
1) The cessation of Israeli and Hezbollah hostilities (ie: a ceasefire)
2) The withdrawal of Israeli forces from Lebanon
3) The activation of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNFIL), a global peacekeeping force along the Blue Line (Lebanese/Israel border)
4) The disarmament of Hezbollah
5) The unconditional release of abducted Israeli soldiers
6) Full control of Lebanon by the Lebanese government (not Hezbollah)
7) No foreign forces (specifically Iranian and Syrian) in Lebanon
8) No armed forces south of the Litani River.
Israel complied with Resolution 1701 and withdrew its forces, but the abducted Israeli soldiers were never returned, and almost immediately Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah announced that Hezbollah would not disarm.
With help from Iran and Syria, the terrorist organization quickly rearmed during the ceasefire with over 30,0000 rockets.
Neither Lebanon nor the UN was willing to disarm Hezbollah (“It is not a direct mandate of the UN,” said then-UN Secretary General Kofi Annan).
By 2014, Hezbollah had built up an arsenal of over 100,000 missiles.
Iran and Syria continue to send weapons, as Hezbollah ignores all international calls for its disarmament.
Since the October Hamas attack on Israeli communities bordering Gaza, Hezbollah has joined the current war in solidarity with Hamas, and the missile attacks from Lebanon into Israeli civilian communities are only escalating.
Israel’s Defense Minister, Yoav Gallant, has also demanded the enforcement of UNSC Resolution 1701.
Lobby 1701 has penned a letter urging Biden to support Israel’s actions to achieve safety and security in the region, and to push for enforcement of the UN resolution.
The organization of northern Israel evacuees has demanded assurances of a demilitarized zone in Lebanon, calling for Hezbollah and other terrorist groups to be removed from the Blue Line to the north side of the Litani River.
In a letter to top U.S. officials, the group explained how lack of enforcement of the UN resolution created the situation necessitating their evacuation.
“For 17 years we have had to bear witness to how ineffective UNSCR 1701 is in the face of reality. Hezbollah never acted in accordance with the resolution and openly established military positions on the border – feet away from our homes.”
“Meanwhile, UNIFIL has been providing a false sense of security, while allowing Hezbollah to rearm, prepare, and plan its invasion into Israel… Because of their daily missiles and UAV attacks that target our homes and communities, and the threat of many more, we were unwillingly forced to evacuate… No country could accept this current situation, in which a neighboring terrorist organization calls for its destruction and fires towards its citizens.”
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