Human Rights Watch has called on the United Nations to keep an international force in Lebanon after its peacekeepers' mandate ends this year.
The peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon, UNIFIL, has roughly 7,500 personnel from nearly 50 countries, and has been in place since 1978.
Its presence has not prevented repeated outbreaks of conflict. Southern Lebanon has seen successive wars between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah.
In August last year, however, the UN Security Council, under US pressure, decided to end UNIFIL's mandate on December 31, 2026.
"Pulling the plug on UNIFIL without a robust international force in place would effectively abandon millions of Lebanese civilians to an uncertain and potentially disastrous fate," said Louis Charbonneau, HRW's UN director.
"The peacekeepers are a crucial deterrent against attacks on civilians and human rights abuses," he added.
HRW urged the UN to extend the peacekeeping force's mandate "until the security situation has improved sufficiently to consider further reducing the force".
UN chief Antonio Guterres has said that peacekeepers will be needed in Lebanon after the current mandate expires, a suggestion likely to face opposition from the United States and Israel.
In June, he proposed three options ranging from nearly 2,000 to more than 5,500 UN personnel to monitor the ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, and support Lebanon's armed forces.
That same month, France and Italy said they wanted to launch a coalition for after UNIFIL to strengthen Lebanon's sovereignty and prevent its territory from being "a foothold for regional escalation".
The country became embroiled in the Middle East war after Hezbollah fired rockets at Israel on March 2, prompting a widespread Israeli bombing campaign and ground invasion. More than 4,300 people have been killed, though violence has decreased since a US-Iran deal and a Washington-sponsored framework agreement between Lebanon and Israel went into force.
In July, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun called for UNIFIL to stay. And Lebanon's UN mission sent a letter, signed by 86 member states, to the UN Security Council calling for UNIFIL troops to remain with an expanded mandate.
Aoun said that if UNIFIL could not stay there should be "an alternative force" to "assist the Lebanese army in clearing the southern regions, removing unexploded ordnance, and keeping pace with the implementation" of the framework agreement.
HRW's Charbonneau said that "the Security Council should not leave Lebanese civilians unprotected".
"The council will share much of the blame if UNIFIL's departure creates a security vacuum that opens the door to further abuses".
