The rising tensions between Israel and Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed militant and political group that controls much of Lebanon, appears to be escalating even as the United Nations is convening its annual assembly of world leaders this week. The uptick in fighting highlights the long and bitter history between Israel and its regional foes — and the U.N.’s inability to resolve it, despite numerous efforts over many years.
On Monday, the Israeli foreign minister, Israel Katz, filed a complaint with the U.N. Security Council about Hezbollah rockets fired at northern Israel on Sunday, which reached further into the country than previous strikes, according to a statement from the ministry. Mr. Katz urged the Council to enforce a resolution it had adopted in 2006, which called for Hezbollah’s withdrawal from Lebanon along the Israeli border, among other stipulations.
“Yesterday, Hezbollah attacked indiscriminately in the Haifa area and in northern Israel, putting about half a million more civilians in the firing range,” Mr. Katz wrote in the complaint. He added, “Israel is not interested in an all-out war. However, we will employ all necessary means to defend ourselves and our civilians in accordance with international law.”
The U.N. secretary general, António Guterres, called on Monday for an immediate cessation of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, according to his spokesman, Stéphane Dujarric. “There is no military solution that will make either side safer,” Mr. Dujarric said in a statement.
He added that the secretary general “urges the parties to recommit to the full implementation of Security Council resolution 1701 (2006) and immediately return to a cessation of hostilities to restore stability.”
Tensions in the Middle East — and efforts to defuse them — have had international diplomats scrambling since the Hamas-led Oct. 7 attacks set off a devastating war in Gaza more than 11 months ago. Much of their attention has been focused on seeking a cease-fire deal between Hamas and Israel that would end the fighting and return dozens of hostages taken from Israel on Oct. 7. Hezbollah has said that it will stop firing on Israel if an agreement is reached, and Naim Qassem, Hezbollah’s deputy leader, reiterated this position in a speech on Sunday.
But the cease-fire talks have stalled in recent weeks, and tensions between Israel and Hezbollah have intensified, raising widespread fear that the conflict could escalate further and possibly draw in Iran.
This escalation has put the focus back on Resolution 1701, which was supposed to keep the peace between Israel and Hezbollah.
That resolution marked a turning point in the situation in southern Lebanon. Israel and allied forces had occupied a strip of that area starting in 1985, withdrawing in 2000. The resolution was adopted six years later, when Israeli forces returned amid a new round of intense fighting with Hezbollah.
Resolution 1701 called for a “permanent cease-fire” and the establishment of a buffer area south of the Litani River in Lebanon to be free of any armed personnel, assets, and weapons other than those of the government of Lebanon and a U.N. peacekeeping force.
The resolution also envisioned the demilitarization of Hezbollah. It reiterated goals of a 2004 resolution with similar aims but no enforcement mechanism that had been largely ignored.
When 1701 was adopted unanimously in 2006, the U.S. secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, said the resolution would allow a new and stronger Lebanon to emerge, with the world’s help, adding, “Now, the hard and urgent work of implementation begins.”
Since then, Hezbollah has gained political and military might. In 2008, Israel sought peace talks with Lebanon’s government but was rebuffed, in large part because Hezbollah had gained political power in an agreement with the Lebanese government.
Although the U.N. deemed Israel’s withdrawal from Lebanon in 2000 complete, Israel remained in a portion of land there known as Shabaa Farms. The U.N. considered it part of the Syrian Golan Heights occupied by Israel. But Lebanon and Hezbollah said the land was Lebanese, Syria did not interfere, and this is one reason Hezbollah has given for remaining in the area and armed.
Israel maintains that Hezbollah has built up its arsenal of missiles aimed at Israel’s northern border and has built underground tunnels that would allow the militant group to infiltrate and attack Israel. In 2006, Palestinian militants used a tunnel to enter Israel, kill two soldiers and kidnap a third, Gilad Shalit, who was held for five years. In 2018, after a military operation that uncovered tunnels built by Hezbollah, Israel called for international action. U.N. forces in Lebanon confirmed the presence of those tunnels.
Mr. Katz’s letter on Monday defended Israel’s strike on Beirut on Friday that killed a top Hezbollah commander, Ibrahim Aqeel, and others. He said that the Israeli military attacked Lebanon’s capital to target the group’s leadership and thwart Hezbollah’s plans to infiltrate Israel to attack, drawing a parallel to the Oct. 7 attack.
His call for enforcement of Resolution 1701 will no doubt be echoed by many speakers at the General Assembly’s annual meeting this week. But how to enforce it — an issue raised by the United States and other supporters when it was first adopted, and again by representatives of member states at a Security Council meeting about the situation in Lebanon on Friday — has yet to be resolved.
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