After months of tension along the Lebanese border with northern occupied Palestine, Israeli media began to report Tel Aviv’s frustration at the presence of tents that have been set up in the Shebaa Farms area by Hezbollah operatives. Despite thousands of territorial violations and the continued occupation of Lebanese lands, Israel is threatening Beirut with war over what it considers an infringement on its territory.
As a means of combating an Israeli multi-million dollar border wall project, which began in 2018, Lebanese Hezbollah established an outpost earlier this year inside the territory known as the Shebaa Farms. When the Israeli border-wall was first announced, Lebanon’s Higher Defence Council was given orders to prevent them from building it on Lebanese lands. Beirut also immediately filed a complaint to the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), to complain that Tel Aviv’s wall project violates UN resolution 1701 that was unanimously adopted at the Security Council, ending the 2006 Lebanon-Israel war.
The Shebaa Farms area was illegally occupied by Israel during the June 1967 war and is claimed by Lebanon to be part of its territory. Israel claims that the Hezbollah outpost, consisting of two tents and a number of operatives belonging to the political party/armed group, violates their sovereignty as they believe the Shebaa Farms falls on their side of what is called the Blue Line. Since 1982, when Israeli occupation forces invaded Lebanon, killing around 20,000 people — the majority of whom were civilians — it maintained an illegal occupation of Southern Lebanon, as it similarly does today in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and through different means the Gaza Strip. In the year 2000, following decades of armed resistance against the occupying army and their collaborator force, the South Lebanon Army (SLA), Tel Aviv decided to officially withdraw from Southern Lebanon.
The Blue Line was set in place at this time in order to roughly demarcate the boundaries between Israel’s occupying forces and Lebanese sovereign territory, but does not constitute an internationally recognized border. Instead there is the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) that operates to supposedly maintain the peace between the two sides, who are technically still at a state of war. In March of this year, Major General Aroldo Lazaro, who is the Head of Mission and Force Commander for UNIFIL, complained about a “lack of clarity of the Blue Line”, further stating that “the Blue Line marking project provides a guide in approximating the Blue Line trajectory. Clarity on the precise trajectory of the Blue Line is determined through the deployment of UNIFIL assets”. In 2007 a project was put in place to facilitate an agreement between Lebanon and Israel as to where the border actually exists, however, acknowledging the border is difficult on a number of levels and would likely include a de-facto recognition of Israel.
According to a report from Walla News in Hebrew, at the behest of the Israeli government, a strong effort was mounted from Washington to pressure UNIFIL forces, along with both the Lebanese army and government, to evacuate a number of tents set up inside what Israel considers to be its side of the blue-line. Efforts were reportedly going on behind the scenes since April to exert pressure on the Lebanese side, but to no avail. Hezbollah set up its outpost in response to frequent Israeli incursions, past the Blue Line, where its militarized vehicles were crossing into Lebanese land in order to clear trees and set up room for further fence and wall construction, leading to protests from local Lebanese villagers. In March the Lebanese army came into a confrontation with Israeli forces that had crossed the border, assuming combat positions and forcing the Israeli military to retreat after Lebanon’s forces raised their weapons at soldiers; one soldier taking aim with an RPG towards an Israeli tank.
Lebanese MP, Mohammed Raad, the head of Hezbollah’s Loyalty to the Resistance Bloc in the Lebanese parliament, stated on July 1 that “gone are the days when ‘Israel’ could act as it pleases without batting an eyelid.” He further asserted that “no one can impose anything on Hezbollah”. According to Hebrew Channel 12 media reports from July 2, the Israeli military had sent a warning to Hezbollah, via the UNIFIL forces operating near the border, threatening a military confrontation to remove the tents “even at the cost of days of fighting.” Hezbollah responded by refusing to move, despite unverified Israeli media reports indicating that one tent had moved back across the border. On the same day, Lebanon complained that an Israeli warship had also violated its maritime borders, which were agreed upon late last year and hence constitutes a violation of Lebanon’s internationally recognized sea-border.
Israel also frequently violates the airspace of Lebanon, even flying fighter jets at a low altitude over the Capital, Beirut, and antagonizing the civilian population. The Israeli Air Force routinely uses Lebanese airspace to launch its illegal airstrikes against Syria. The latest series of the Israeli attacks on Syria targeted an anti-air missile battery near the city of Homs. Israel commits thousands of violations against Lebanese territory every year; by land, air, and sea combined. Several Lebanese complaints to the United Nations over Israeli infringements on Lebanon’s sovereignty have fallen on deaf ears — a perfect example of how this so-called “rules-based international order” seemingly only applies in one direction.
Tel Aviv is currently confronted with a situation along the Blue Line, which serves as an embarrassment to its army; its drones are occasionally shot down by Lebanese Hezbollah, it is closely monitored, and its provocative border plans have resulted in a number of self-owns. Israeli forces have stumbled upon their own mines, causing serious injuries to their troops, they have been ran off by the Lebanese armed forces, are routinely confronted by Lebanese villagers who are not scared to clash with them, and now are unable to remove some tents from the occupied Shebaa Farms, using the US’ resources and time to apply pressure for them. Now the Israeli media is filled with critiques of the Israeli army and how they are deterred from acting against Hezbollah, out of a fear for what response could come in a war against the group.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is now coming under internal pressure, once again, over his government’s planned judicial reforms, which may be why the issue is being re-introduced at this time. However, it is more likely that a military operation against the Northern West Bank will be the next move of the Netanyahu administration, as a war with Lebanon could result in catastrophic losses for the Israeli army and economy, a move that Tel Aviv would only take in the event of extreme vulnerability.
