In the southern Lebanese village of Ibl al-Saqi, the looming withdrawal of UN peacekeepers is being felt less as a geopolitical shift than as a direct economic threat, The Times of Israel reported. Mark Diab, 59, who owns a shop that depends on business from the UN Interim Force in Lebanon, said the connection runs deeper than commerce. "UNIFIL isn't just business, to us it's family," he said, noting that his own sister married a peacekeeper and now lives in Spain.
UNIFIL's mandate is set to end on December 31, 2026. The force has served as a buffer in the area since Israel's 1978 invasion of Lebanon, and expanded significantly after the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war to help implement UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which called for disarming militant groups and clearing armed forces out of southern Lebanon.
Ibl al-Saqi's mayor, George Rahhal, described the peacekeepers' impact as reaching well beyond security. "They've left a positive mark on everybody's hearts, firstly through security, then the economy, healthcare, supporting schools, the sick," he said, adding that he worries about the timing of the withdrawal given ongoing regional tensions. With roughly 7,500 personnel from nearly 50 countries and about 400 local staff, UNIFIL has functioned, in the words of former spokesperson Andrea Tenenti, as "the second largest employer and economic contributor in southern Lebanon, after the Lebanese state."
For workshop co-owner Khaled Nahra, 48, whose business makes customized goods for peacekeepers, the withdrawal means the end of an operation that has employed local workers for 15 and 20 years. "There are people who've been working here for 15, 20 years," he said, a line that captures how closely the village's economy has been bound up with a foreign military presence most residents never expected to lose.
