Lebanon plans to appeal to the UN Security Council against Israel for building a concrete wall along Lebanon’s southern border that extends beyond the “Blue Line”, the Lebanese presidency announced today.
The Blue Line is the UN-established demarcation line that separates Lebanon from Israel and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
Israeli forces withdrew to the Blue Line when they withdrew from southern Lebanon in 2000.
The spokesman for the UN Secretary-General, Stephane Dujarric, said yesterday that the wall has made more than 4,000 square meters of Lebanese territory inaccessible to the local population.
The Lebanese presidency echoed his comments, stressing in a statement that Israel’s ongoing construction is a “violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701 and a violation of Lebanon’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
Dujarric said the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL/FINUL) has called for the wall to be removed.
An Israeli army spokesman denied on Friday that the wall crosses the Blue Line. “The wall is part of a wider IDF (Israeli Armed Forces) project whose construction began in 2022,” the spokesman said.
“Since the start of the war, and as part of the lessons learned from it, the Israel Defense Forces have promoted a number of measures, including strengthening the natural barrier along the northern border,” he added.
Established in 1978, UNIFIL operates between the Litani River in the north and the Blue Line in the south. The mission is made up of more than 10,000 troops from 50 countries and about 800 civilian employees, according to its website.
Despite a ceasefire that ended a nearly year-long war with the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, the Israeli army still holds five positions in southern Lebanon.
