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Force Mobile Reserve (FMR) was a multi-national, mechanized, high-readiness military reserve force, established in 1987, and able to react to incidents anywhere in the United Nations Interim Force in the Lebanon (UNIFIL) area of operations. [1]
In 1986, the armed wing of the Shiite Amal movement clashed gravely with French UNIFIL forces. It became apparent that UNIFIL could no longer continue peacekeeping along the same path. Hence, the decision was taken to redeploy about half the French battalion to UNIFIL headquarters at Naqoura to operate as the Force's mobile reserve. [2]
On June 1, 1987, Force Mobile Reserve was established, composed of soldiers from each of the contributing contingents of UNIFIL. The deployment came with a mission to demonstrate an international willingness to resist attempts by forceful means to prevent UNIFIL from discharging its duties. FMR was via UNIFIL Force Commander placed under direct orders from the Secretary-General. [3]
FMR reinforced UNIFIL's battalions when serious incidents occurred and during rotations. In February 1988 FMR was equipped with Sisu Pasi XA-180 APCs set with 12.7 / 50 .cal HMG. The FMR was rigidly trained in public order and major incident reaction techniques. In addition the FMR also trained for air mobile operations using Bell 212 helicopters to rapidly insert into trouble areas. [4]
In contrast to the merely military duties of FMR came the rescue operation of civilians following the Israel Defense Forces IDF Qana shelling during the IDF Operation Grapes of Wrath in the 1996 Lebanon war. [5]
The 1982 Lebanon War began on 6 June 1982, when Israel invaded southern Lebanon. The invasion followed a series of attacks and counter-attacks between the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) operating in southern Lebanon and the Israeli military that had caused civilian casualties on both sides of the border. The military operation was launched after gunmen from the Abu Nidal Organization attempted to assassinate Shlomo Argov, Israel's ambassador to the United Kingdom. Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin blamed Abu Nidal's enemy, the PLO, for the incident, and used the incident as a casus belli for the invasion.
The Irish Army is the land component of the Defence Forces of Ireland. The Irish Army has an active establishment of 7,520, and a reserve establishment of 3,869. Like other components of the Defence Forces, the Irish Army has struggled to maintain strength and as of April 2023 has only 6,322 active personnel, and 1,382 reserve personnel. The Irish Army is organised into two brigades.
The Qana massacre took place on April 18, 1996, near Qana, a village in Southern Lebanon, when the Israel Defense Forces fired artillery shells at a United Nations compound. The artillery barrage had been launched to cover an Israeli special forces unit after it had come under mortar fire launched from the vicinity of the compound and radioed a request for support. Of 800 Lebanese civilians who had taken refuge in the compound, 106 were killed and around 116 injured. Four Fijian United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon soldiers were also seriously injured.
United Nations Security Council Resolution 425, adopted on 19 March 1978, five days after the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in the context of Palestinian insurgency in South Lebanon and the Lebanese Civil War, called on Israel to withdraw immediately its forces from Lebanon and established the United Nations Interim Force In Lebanon (UNIFIL). It was adopted by 12 votes to none; Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union abstained, and China did not participate.
The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, or UNIFIL, is a UN peacekeeping mission established on 19 March 1978 by United Nations Security Council Resolutions 425 and 426, to confirm Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon which Israel had invaded five days prior, in order to ensure that the government of Lebanon would restore its effective authority in the area. The 1978 South Lebanon conflict came in the context of Palestinian insurgency in South Lebanon and the Lebanese Civil War.
The Blue Line is a demarcation line dividing Lebanon from Israel and the Golan Heights. It was published by the United Nations on 7 June 2000 for the purposes of determining whether Israel had fully withdrawn from Lebanon. It has been described as: "temporary" and "not a border, but a “line of withdrawal”. It is the subject of an ongoing border dispute between Israel, Lebanon, and Hezbollah.
The 1978 South Lebanon conflict began after Israel invaded southern Lebanon up to the Litani River in March 1978, in response to the Coastal Road massacre near Tel Aviv by Lebanon-based Palestinian militants. The conflict resulted in the deaths of 1,100–2,000 Lebanese and Palestinians, 20 Israelis, and the internal displacement of 100,000 to 250,000 people in Lebanon. The Israel Defense Forces gained a military victory against the Palestine Liberation Organization as the latter was forced to withdraw from southern Lebanon, preventing it from launching attacks on Israel from across its land border with Lebanon. In response to the outbreak of hostilities, the United Nations Security Council adopted Resolution 425 and Resolution 426 on 19 March 1978, which called on Israel to immediately withdraw its troops from Lebanon and established the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).
Operation Grapes of Wrath, known in Lebanon as the April Aggression, was a seventeen-day campaign of the Israeli Defense Forces against Hezbollah in 1996 which attempted to end rocket attacks on Northern Israel by the organisation. Israel conducted more than 1,100 air raids and extensive shelling. A UNIFIL compound at Qana was hit when Israeli artillery fired on Hezbollah forces operating nearby. 639 Hezbollah cross-border rocket attacks targeted northern Israel, particularly the town of Kiryat Shemona. Hezbollah forces also participated in numerous engagements with Israeli and South Lebanon Army forces. The conflict was de-escalated on 27 April by a ceasefire agreement banning attacks on civilians.
On July 25, 1993, Israeli forces launched a week-long attack against Lebanon named Operation Accountability in Israel and the Seven-Day War in Lebanon. Israel specified three purposes to the operation, to strike directly at Hezbollah, to make it difficult for Hezbollah to use southern Lebanon as a base for striking Israel, and to displace refugees in the hopes of pressuring the Lebanese government to intervene against Hezbollah. The affected civilian population included both Lebanese and Palestinian refugees.
During the 2006 July War, a number of international incidents occurred in Lebanon, largely involving United Nations personnel who have come under a number of attacks by Israeli forces.
The 2006 Lebanon War, also called the 2006 Israel–Hezbollah War and known in Lebanon as the July War and in Israel as the Second Lebanon War, was a 34-day armed conflict in Lebanon, northern Israel and the Golan Heights. The principal parties were Hezbollah paramilitary forces and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). The conflict started on 12 July 2006, and continued until a United Nations-brokered ceasefire went into effect in the morning on 14 August 2006, though it formally ended on 8 September 2006 when Israel lifted its naval blockade of Lebanon. Due to unprecedented Iranian military support to Hezbollah before and during the war, some consider it the first round of the Iran–Israel proxy conflict, rather than a continuation of the Arab–Israeli conflict.
United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701 is a resolution that was intended to resolve the 2006 Lebanon War. The resolution calls for a full cessation of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Lebanon to be replaced by Lebanese and UNIFIL forces deploying to southern Lebanon, and the disarmament of armed groups including Hezbollah. It emphasizes Lebanon's need to fully exert government control and calls for efforts to address the unconditional release of abducted Israeli soldiers.
United Nations Security Council Resolution 426, adopted on 19 March 1978 at the 2075th meeting of the Security Council, is concerned with both the creation of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) and the duration of its mandate. It comes immediately after and complements Resolution 425, adopted during an earlier meeting on the same day.
The 2010 Israel–Lebanon border clash occurred on August 3, 2010, between the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) and Israel Defense Forces (IDF), after an IDF team attempted to cut down a tree on the Israeli side of the Blue Line, near the Israeli kibbutz of Misgav Am and the Lebanese village of Odaisseh. A high-ranking IDF officer was killed and another wounded when LAF snipers opened fire on an Israeli observation post after receiving authorization from senior Lebanese commanders. IDF soldiers returned fire and responded with artillery shelling and airstrikes on Lebanese positions, killing two Lebanese soldiers and Al Akhbar correspondent Assaf Abu Rahhal, as well as wounding five soldiers and one journalist. This was the most serious escalation on the border since the 2006 Lebanon War.
The Israeli occupation of Southern Lebanon formally began in 1985 and ended in 2000 as part of the South Lebanon conflict. In 1982, Israel invaded Lebanon in response to a spate of attacks carried out from Lebanese territory by Palestinian militants, triggering the 1982 Lebanon War. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and allied Christian Lebanese militias subsequently seized large parts of Lebanon, including the capital city of Beirut, amid the hostilities of the wider Lebanese Civil War. Israel later withdrew from most of the occupied territory between 1983 and 1985, but retained control over areas along the Israel–Lebanon border that would later comprise the Israeli "Security Zone" in coordination with the separatist State of Free Lebanon, which collapsed in 1984. From 1985 onwards, Israel supported the South Lebanon Army (SLA), the Lebanese Christian quasi-military of the collapsed Free Lebanon State, against Hezbollah and other Muslim militants in most of Southern Lebanon; Israel's overall stated purpose for the Security Zone was to create a buffer separating Israeli civilians in northern border towns from Lebanon-based terrorists. In 1993, it was estimated that there were 1,000–2,000 Israeli troops and 2,300 SLA troops active in the area.
Dongmyeong Unit is one of the UN Peacekeeping Forces sent to Lebanon by the Republic of Korea Armed Forces (ROKA). It was formed on 21 June 2007. The conflict in Lebanon began in 1975, after an outbreak of armed clashes between Christians and the Lebanese, Syrian and Israeli militaries leading into the Lebanese Civil War. To prevent ongoing hostilities, the United Nations passed United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolutions 425 and 426, activating the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL). As part of its contribution to UN forces, the Republic of Korea sent the Dongmyeong Unit as a rotational force to Lebanon in July 2007. The Dongmyeong Unit consisted of 300 people, including one battalion of Korean Special Forces and specialist troops filling various roles including engineering, communications, transport, maintenance and medical support.
Operation Northern Shield was an Israeli military operation that took place from 4 December 2018 until 13 January 2019. The operation's declared goal was to locate and destroy Hezbollah tunnels that cross the Blue Line from Lebanon into northern Israel. According to Israel, this operation is part of the ongoing Iran–Israel proxy conflict. On 17 December 2018, United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) acknowledged the existence of four tunnels near the Israel–Lebanon border and confirmed that two of them cross the Blue Line in violation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701, which helped end the 2006 Lebanon War.
Major General Maureen O'Brien is an Irish Army general and current Deputy Military Advisor in the United Nations Office of Military Affairs, Department of Peace Operations. O'Brien had previously been Deputy Force Commander of the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) in the Golan Heights from September 2019 to March 2021.
The Peacekeeping Unit is a battalion of the Islamic Republic of Iran Army Ground Force tasked with peacekeeping missions overseas and assigning personnel contributed by Iran to the United Nations peacekeeping.
The Nabatieh Fawka attack occurred on 16 April 1996, when Israeli warplanes bombed an apartment in the village of Nabatieh Fawka, killing nine people, seven of whom were children.