UNTSO

The United Nations Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO) was the first-ever United Nations peacekeeping mission. It was established by UN Security Council Resolution 50 on May 29, 1948, immediately after the outbreak of the first Arab-Israeli War, to assist the UN Mediator and the Truce Commission in supervising the truce in Palestine. UNTSO has continued operations uninterrupted since 1948 — making it the longest-running UN peacekeeping mission. Its mandate has evolved across the 1948-49 ceasefire, 1956 Suez Crisis, 1967 Six-Day War, 1973 Yom Kippur War, the ongoing Israel-Lebanon-Syria frontier monitoring, and more recently the 2023-26 Gaza crisis. UNTSO's military observers are unarmed and operate as observers and liaison officers — supporting UNDOF (Israel-Syria, Golan Heights) and UNIFIL (Israel-Lebanon). India has contributed military observers to UNTSO across decades. The May 29 anniversary date of UNTSO's launch was institutionalised as the International Day of UN Peacekeepers by UN General Assembly Resolution 57/129 on December 11, 2002, first observed in 2003.

• 1 Established: May 29, 1948
• 2 Authorising resolution: UN Security Council Resolution 50
• 3 Context: First Arab-Israeli War (Palestine)
• 4 Status: First UN peacekeeping mission; longest-running
• 5 Personnel type: military observers (unarmed)
• 6 Supports: UNDOF (Golan) + UNIFIL (Lebanon)
• 7 India: long-standing observer contributions
• 8 UN Day of Peacekeepers: May 29 (since 2003, UNGA Resolution 57/129)

On May 29, 2026 — the 78th anniversary of UNTSO's launch — UN Secretary-General António Guterres conferred the Dag Hammarskjöld Medal posthumously on two Indian peacekeepers, Lance Havildar Harbhajan Singh (MONUSCO) and Naib Subedar Sujit Kumar Pradhan (UNMISS).