The UN peacekeeping mission that has watched over southern Lebanon since 1978, known as UNIFIL, is drawing to a close. Its authorization runs out at the end of the year, and it will not be extended because the United States and Israel oppose it. No lasting truce exists yet.
Hezbollah launched its first attack against Israel with rockets in March, and the fighting has continued since. Israel has reported that 39 soldiers and a military contractor, along with two civilians, were killed in those Hezbollah strikes. According to UNIFIL, seven UNIFIL peacekeepers have also died since the war broke out this year.
The “blue line,” now marked by blue metal barriers, was the demarcation line drawn up by the U.N. for another Israeli withdrawal in 2000 after 18 years of occupation in southern Lebanon. That line no longer fully describes the reality on the ground.
The Lines on the Map
The long months of heavy fire have worn down the old borders between zones. In their place, fresh lines of control and restriction have taken shape.
What Israel calls a buffer zone, defined by what it calls the yellow line, is a strip of land five miles wide in some places, where Israeli forces continue to hold Lebanon. The state bars Lebanese civilians from reaching their own land along the border, and has torn down civilian homes and infrastructure in many border towns.
The Spanish public information officer for UNIFIL, Lt. Col. Sebastián Dorado Santos, has said: “The yellow line does not exist for us, but we have to mark it on the map so that we can visualize it.”
He adds: “It has disrupted normal life. Many civilians are unable to go to work or carry out their daily activities. The harvest season is approaching, but they cannot access their fields.”
The zone under restriction spans roughly 6% of the time that southern Lebanon was held by Lebanon’s territory, reviving memories of Israel’s forces, a period lasting 18 years that came to an end in 2000.
“The yellow line does not exist for us, but we have to mark it on the map so that we can visualize it.”
A handful of Christian villages still hold residents, though they sit isolated and far removed from basic services, only a few miles away from the most heavily damaged regions. Food, medicine, and other essential supplies reach these communities through humanitarian convoys.
A network coordinator for Catholic organizations, Father Hani Tawk, is quoted as saying: “When they see us, they know they are not alone.”
The town’s leader, Salman Abou al-Ola, describes farming as the central means of support for his community and a key force behind its growth. He states: “Farmers need to reach their fields and harvest their crops.”
A Syrian resident named Fayez Al Khaled says “There are no doctors here, and humanitarian assistance is insufficient. We are living like in a prison.”.
The Road Back
Months after restrictions were put in place, UNIFIL has opened up portions of its eastern sector that were previously closed off due to Israel’s military presence.
The French UNIFIL battalion’s Sgt. Audric states: “Today, for the first time in several months, we are heading into the eastern sector. It is an opportunity for us.” He went on to say, “Since the negotiations began, we have been able to reopen this sector and finally regain our freedom of movement following the ceasefire.”
The U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701, passed in 2006 to bring an end to the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah and set up a security arrangement for southern Lebanon, now faces fresh obstacles in its implementation.
Some non-military operations carried out by UNIFIL have restarted, including basic medical assistance in places where access is still severely limited.
More than 4,300 individuals have died in the conflict, while over 1.2 million have fled their homes. A shaky lull now exists between the fighting parties.
Bombs, not treaties, drew the new lines of southern Lebanon.
Where the paper stands
The paper backs the deal over the standoff and is against a foreign entanglement that could last beyond the year without a lasting truce. The conflict in southern Lebanon shows how easily a border drawn by force can become permanent, and how hard it is to restore the old order once a line has been broken by war.
UNIFIL’s mandate ends at the close of the year, and it will not be renewed because the United States and Israel oppose it. That decision leaves the blue line, drawn for Israel’s withdrawal from Lebanon in 2000, less and less relevant to the ground as it stands today. A new line, the yellow line, now marks a zone where Israeli forces hold sway and where Lebanese civilians are barred from entering their own land.
The paper would rather see the standoff resolved than prolonged. It backs the deal over the standoff, which means letting the truce hold and letting UNIFIL’s mandate run its course without renewal. The paper believes that a lasting truce is better than a foreign entanglement that could last beyond the year without one.
Source material: “The new lines of southern Lebanon,” NPR.
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