Israel’s occupation and new ‘Yellow Line’<\/p>\n
On Sunday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) released a map highlighting a large area hugging the border in southern Lebanon, which it says will remain under its control for the duration of the ceasefire.<\/p>\n
The map shows an area stretching east to west along the entire border<\/a>, running between five and 10 km deep into Lebanese territory and covering about 560 square kilometres \u2014 or about 5.5 per cent of Lebanon’s land.<\/p>\n The IDF has called the boundary its “Forward Defense Line” and the area a “buffer zone”, where it said troops would work to “dismantle Hezbollah terror infrastructure sites and to prevent direct threats to communities in northern Israel”.<\/p>\n But it has also called it Lebanon’s “Yellow Line”, a term it used to describe the ceasefire border in Gaza.<\/p>\n Michael Young, a senior editor at the Malcolm H Kerr Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut, says this boundary represents the current front line with Hezbollah, but is likely not its final form.<\/p>\n “For the moment, this is a temporary line. I think the Israelis will try gradually to establish a line that is more defensible, that isn’t a line that was imposed on them by a ceasefire,” he says.<\/p>\n Beyond this occupied area, Mr Young argues Israel may seek to exert a level of control in other parts of the south where it can fire freely and “act when they want”.<\/p>\n “I don’t think the Israelis will ever give up on their ability to strike targets inside Lebanon,” he said.<\/p>\n Late last week Hezbollah indicated it was willing to abide by the ceasefire, so long as it included a “comprehensive halt to attacks” across Lebanon and “no freedom of movement for Israeli forces”.<\/p>\n But after the IDF released the map of its new “security zone”, Hezbollah said it would fight to “bring down” the line.<\/p>\n “The attempt by the Israeli army to establish a buffer zone, under the title of a defensive line, a yellow line, a green line, and a red line\u2026 all these lines will be broken, and we will not accept any of them,” Hezbollah politician Hassan Fadlallah told AFP overnight, vowing that “no-one in Lebanon or abroad will be able to disarm the resistance”.<\/p>\n The IDF said it had already attacked “terrorists in several areas” for approaching Israeli forces from north of the Yellow Line, adding that its actions were in self-defence and therefore did not violate the new ceasefire.<\/p>\n Another statement from the IDF said, “At this stage, Lebanese civilians are not yet permitted to return to southern Lebanon.”<\/p>\n Israel’s stated “buffer zone” also stretches out to sea and carves up a portion of Lebanon’s exclusive economic zone which also contains possible gas fields.<\/p>\n While analysts say it’s a worrying aspect of the occupation, it does not affect the maritime border agreed between Lebanon and Israel in 2022.<\/p>\n “From a legal point of view, this map doesn’t change anything about the fact that there is a maritime border agreement,” Lebanese Energy Minister Joe Saddi told Reuters. “Very simply, the agreement is in effect and nothing is changing.”<\/p>\n Destruction in southern Lebanon<\/p>\n South of the “yellow line”, the IDF has already begun destruction in some of the dozens of villages that were told to evacuate earlier in the war.<\/p>\n “There is a ceasefire now, but they’re still blowing up houses,” Adnan Alyan, the former mayor of Shia Muslim-majority town Khiam, told the ABC.<\/p>\n Adnan currently resides in Lebanon’s capital, Beirut, because his family home in Khiam was destroyed at the beginning of the war.<\/p>\n “They go in, they blow up the entire neighbourhood, 30 or 40 houses, they bomb them all together,” he said.<\/p>\n “They’re bombing every day, everywhere in the south \u2026 they created a belt and they’re bombing them all.”<\/p>\n Ali Hassan Khalil, a top aide to Lebanon’s Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, said Israel carried out varying degrees of destruction in 39 villages during the ceasefire, including destroying civilian homes. He said this amounted to “a clear war crime”.<\/p>\n An Israeli flag flies on top of a damaged building in Lebanese territory as heavy machinery operates amid rubble. (Reuters: Florion Goga)<\/p>\n The IDF said its operations targeted Hezbollah infrastructure, but sources told Haaretz<\/a> that civilian infrastructure \u2014 including homes, public buildings and schools \u2014 were being flattened and a BBC analysis of satellite imagery<\/a> showed complete villages destroyed.<\/p>\n Earlier this week IsraeliDefense Minister Israel Katz said the destruction of houses along the border would continue despite the ceasefire, saying without providing evidence that they had “effectively become terrorist outposts”.<\/p>\n “Israel is implementing a strategy in Lebanon reminiscent of its tactics in Gaza,” Sibylle Rizk, a Lebanese analyst and journalist, told the ABC.<\/p>\n “The systematic destruction of occupied localities signals an intent for a prolonged occupation, aimed at minimising Israeli casualties from Hezbollah’s guerilla operations.”<\/p>\n She says the IDF “is opting for a ‘scorched earth’ approach” rather than risking “urban combat on a terrain mastered by” Hezbollah.<\/p>\n “For Lebanon, the cost of this new occupation, following the 1978\u20132000 period [during which Israel occupied parts of southern Lebanon], is an unbearable burden for the southern population,” she says.<\/p>\n The IDF has claimed Hezbollah embeds military infrastructure and assets, including weapons, inside civilian areas and homes. It also told BBC News<\/a> it did not destroy property unless militarily necessary.<\/p>\n Christian villages also face ‘crisis’<\/p>\n Israel’s destruction operations have so far largely focused on Shia Muslim towns, where there is support for Hezbollah.<\/p>\n Southern Lebanon is also home to several Christian villages, which have mostly been left intact and where some residents have remained during the war.<\/p>\n But their future is also in doubt.<\/p>\n Over the weekend, a photo emerged showing an Israeli soldier taking the blunt side of an axe to a fallen sculpture of Jesus on the cross in the Christian town of Debel.<\/p>\n An Israeli soldier damages the head of a statue of Jesus, in Debel. (Social Media via Reuters)<\/p>\n The soldier’s actions were strongly condemned by both Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the IDF, which said the soldier’s conduct was “wholly inconsistent with the values expected of its troops”.<\/p>\n The cross was part of a small shrine in the garden of a family living on the edge of the village, local priest Fadi Falfel told Reuters. He called it a “desecration of our holy symbols”.<\/p>\n “We have every kind of crisis,” he said.<\/p>\n “We thought the ceasefire would bring us some relief but we’re still surrounded, unable to travel to and from the town. There are some houses on the edge of town that we’re barred from accessing.”<\/p>\n While some Christian residents fear their villages could be destroyed if they leave, Mr Young says Israel’s current strategy is to leave them alone and use their presence for its advantage.<\/p>\n “If people in [Christian village] Ramesh don’t want their village to be destroyed, then eventually any kind of activity by Hezbollah could be opposed by the people of the village because it could potentially threaten them,” he said.<\/p>\n “The Israelis are putting the communities against each other. This is very simple.”<\/p>\n![\"a](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1c3df296e5210b2c1d43fb8b726a1c95.jpeg\")
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