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UN PhotoGENEVA / UNIFIL INCIDENT INTERVIEW
STORY: GENEVA / UNIFIL INCIDENT INTERVIEW
TRT: 04:50
SOURCE: UNTV CH / UNIFIL
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATE/LOCATION: 17 NOVEMBER 2025, UNIFIL HQ, NAQOURA, SOUTH LEBANON / FILE
FILE - UNIFIL - SOUTH LEBANON
1. Wide shot, UNIFIL and LAF personnel on vehicles and foot patrol
UNTV CH - 17 NOVEMBER 2025, UNIFIL HQ, NAQOURA, SOUTH LEBANON
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Kandice Ardiel, Deputy Spokesperson, United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL):
“On Sunday morning, November 16th, peacekeepers were on a foot patrol, and this was a patrol that had been planned, it had been informed to both the Lebanese and Israeli armies, as we inform our activities to them near the blue line, because these are sensitive areas. This patrol came under fire, and shots hit the ground about 5 meters from where these peacekeepers were.”
FILE - UNIFIL - SOUTH LEBANON
3. Med shot, Italian Battalion peacekeeper inspecting destroyed buildings
4. Driving shot, destroyed buildings
UNTV CH - 17 NOVEMBER 2025, UNIFIL HQ, NAQOURA, SOUTH LEBANON
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Kandice Ardiel, Deputy Spokesperson, United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL):
“Any attack on peacekeepers is unacceptable. It puts at risk the stability that Lebanon and Israel have both committed to rebuild, and it prevents peacekeepers from doing their work to restore stability to the Blue Line and to the region.”
FILE - UNIFIL - SOUTH LEBANON
6. Various shots, UNIFIL vehicles on patrol along the Blue Line
UNTV CH - 17 NOVEMBER 2025, UNIFIL HQ, NAQOURA, SOUTH LEBANON
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Kandice Ardiel, Deputy Spokesperson, United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL):
“Since November of last year, the IDF has taken about 10 square kilometres of Lebanese territory in 5 positions and 2 buffer zones. They've taken control of this, to the exclusion of the Lebanese people and the Lebanese army. Recently, we've identified a T-wall construction, a concrete wall that the IDF is building along the Blue Line, that actually violates the line in two places near the town of Yaroun. It crosses the line into Lebanese territory in these two places. In one instance, taking about 4,000 square meters of Lebanese territory and placing it behind this Israeli wall. This is a violation of the line, which is meant to be the line of withdrawal between Lebanon and Israel. It's the line that peacekeepers monitor and report violations of every day.”
FILE - UNIFIL - SOUTH LEBANON
8. Various shots, UNIFIL Italian Battalion peacekeepers removing barbed wire from a road
UNTV CH - 17 NOVEMBER 2025, UNIFIL HQ, NAQOURA, SOUTH LEBANON
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Kandice Ardiel, Deputy Spokesperson, United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL):
“The presence of Israeli soldiers in South Lebanon simply means that people cannot return to the towns and villages that they had to flee during the conflict that took place here. Unfortunately, the IDF has ensured that people cannot come back to these villages that are near their five positions and two buffer zones, and it means people are afraid, because they don't know what's going to happen. People who are approaching these areas and in other areas have been subject to warning fire. All of farmers who are harvesting their crops have had drones, have had grenades dropped nearby. So, it means that people are not able to return to their livelihoods, return to their normal lives.”
FILE - UNIFIL - SOUTH LEBANON
10. Various shots, UNIFIL peacekeepers clearing up obstructed roads with heavy machinery
UNTV CH - 17 NOVEMBER 2025, UNIFIL HQ, NAQOURA, SOUTH LEBANON
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Kandice Ardiel, Deputy Spokesperson, United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL):
“UNIFIL peacekeepers are the only actors on the ground who are monitoring and impartially reporting on what's happening. We are monitoring the airspace over South Lebanon, so we record the violations by Israeli fighter jets, by drones, and we capture strikes by artillery, we capture direct fire over the blue line, we record any number of violations on a daily basis, and since the cessation of hostilities. We've recorded well over 10,000, separate violations of, of different kinds.”
FILE - UNIFIL - SOUTH LEBANON
12. Various shots, UNIFIL peacekeepers on patrol
UNTV CH - 17 NOVEMBER 2025, UNIFIL HQ, NAQOURA, SOUTH LEBANON
13. SOUNDBITE (English) Kandice Ardiel, Deputy Spokesperson, United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL):
“With our eventual departure beginning in 2027, the Lebanese Armed Forces will be the ones to take over the security tasks that we currently perform under Resolution 1701. But they need support.”
14. FILE - UNIFIL - SOUTH LEBANON
12. Various shots, UNIFIL Cambodian Battalion demining operations
Following an incident on Sunday morning near the Blue Line of demarcation between Israel and Southern Lebanon in which a peacekeeping patrol came under fire, the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) Spokesperson, Kandice Ardiel said, “any attack on peacekeepers is unacceptable. It puts at risk the stability that Lebanon and Israel have both committed to rebuild, and it prevents peacekeepers from doing their work to restore stability to the Blue Line and to the region.”
C noted that “peacekeepers were on a foot patrol, and this was a patrol that had been planned, it had been informed to both the Lebanese and Israeli armies, as we inform our activities to them, because these are sensitive areas.”
She said “shots hit the ground about 5 meters from where these peacekeepers were.”
The UNIFIL spokesperson said, “since November of last year, the IDF has taken about 10 square kilometres of Lebanese territory in 5 positions and 2 buffer zones.”
She said, “recently, we've identified a T-wall construction, a concrete wall that the IDF is building along the Blue Line, that actually violates the line in two places near the town of Yaroun. It crosses the line into Lebanese territory in these two places. In one instance, taking about 4,000 square meters of Lebanese territory and placing it behind this Israeli wall.”
Ardiel stressed that this was “a violation of the line, which is meant to be the line of withdrawal between Lebanon and Israel. It's the line that peacekeepers monitor and report violations of every day.”
She said, “the presence of Israeli soldiers in South Lebanon simply means that people cannot return to the towns and villages that they had to flee during the conflict that took place here,” and pointed out that “people are afraid, because they don't know what's going to happen. People who are approaching these areas and in other areas have been subject to warning fire. All of farmers who are harvesting their crops have had drones, have had grenades dropped nearby. So, it means that people are not able to return to their livelihoods, return to their normal lives.”
The spokesperson said, “UNIFIL peacekeepers are the only actors on the ground who are monitoring and impartially reporting on what's happening. We are monitoring the airspace over South Lebanon, so we record the violations by Israeli fighter jets, by drones, and we capture strikes by artillery, we capture direct fire over the blue line, we record any number of violations on a daily basis, and since the cessation of hostilities. We've recorded well over 10,000, separate violations of, of different kinds.”
With UNIFIL’s eventual departure beginning in 2027, she said, “the Lebanese Armed Forces will be the ones to take over the security tasks that we currently perform under Resolution 1701. But they need support.”
United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701, adopted on August 11, 2006, aimed to resolve the 2006 Lebanon War by calling for a full cessation of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah.
Key Provisions of Resolution 1701
It mandates the withdrawal of Israeli forces from southern Lebanon and the disarmament of Hezbollah and other armed groups in the region, ensuring that no armed forces other than UNIFIL and the Lebanese military operate south of the Litani River.
UNIFIL has around 10,500 peacekeepers coming from around 50 troop-contributing countries.
The Mission maintains an intensive level of operational and other activities amounting to approximately 14,500 activities per month, day, and night, in the area of operations.
Seventeen percent of activities are carried out jointly with the Lebanese Armed Forces. UNIFIL is complemented by a five-vessel Maritime Task Force.
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