The United Nations Integrated Mission in Timor-Leste (UNMIT) is the fifth UN peacekeeping operation in 60 Years of United Nations Peacekeeping The United Nations will observe 60 years of peacekeeping operations on 29 May 2008, the annual observance of the International Day of UN Peacekeepers, by paying tribute to all peacekeepers who have served since 1948 and commemorating those who died in the cause of peace in the past year. United Nations peacekeeping began in 1948 with the deployment of unarmed UN military observers to the Middle East in a mission to monitor the Armistice Agreement between Israel and its Arab neighbors. Today, more than 110,000 uniformed and civilian personnel are serving in 20 peace operations managed by the Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO). Since 1948, 63 peacekeeping operations have been deployed by the United Nations, 17 of them in the past decade alone. Over the years hundreds of thousands of military personnel, as well as tens of thousands of UN police and other civilians, from more than 120 countries have participated in UN operations. More than 2,400 United Nations peacekeepers from some 118 countries died while serving under the UN flag during the past 60 years.