Lebanon to file UN complaint against Israel for wall inside its territory – Firstpost

Lebanon’s president on Saturday asked the country’s foreign minister to act on filing a complaint against Israel over the construction of a concrete wall extending beyond the “Blue Line” on Lebanon’s southern border.

The Blue Line is a United Nations-mapped line that separates Lebanon from Israel and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. When Israeli forces withdrew from southern Lebanon in 2000 they withdrew to the Blue Line.

A spokesman for UN Secretary-General Stephane Dujarric said on Friday that the wall had made more than 4,000 square meters (about an acre) of Lebanese territory inaccessible to the local population.

A statement issued by President Joseph Aoun’s office said he had asked the foreign minister to include the statement of complaint issued by the United Nations peacekeeping force, known as UNIFIL, deployed along the border with Israel.

On Friday, UNIFIL said in a statement that Israeli forces had erected a wall southwest of the Lebanese village of Yaroun.

UNIFIL said the wall crossed the border line, making more than 4,000 square meters (43,000 sq ft) of Lebanese territory “inaccessible to the Lebanese people”.

UNIFIL said it had informed the Israeli military of its findings and requested that they remove the wall.

It said construction of the wall violates a UN Security Council resolution that ended the 14-month Israel-Hezbollah war with a US-brokered ceasefire in November last year. UNIFIL said the wall violates “Lebanon’s sovereignty and territorial integrity”.

UNIFIL, established in 1978, operates between the Litani River in the north and the Blue Line in the south. According to its website, the mission has more than 10,000 troops from 50 countries and about 800 civilian personnel.

The Israeli military said the wall, construction of which begins in 2022, is part of a broader plan to reinforce the border.

It said that since the beginning of the war the Israeli army has been taking several steps forward, including strengthening the physical barrier on the northern border.

The Israeli military said it should be emphasized that the wall does not cross the Blue Line, the UN-marked border between Lebanon and Israel, which UNIFIL monitors and patrols.

The Israel-Hezbollah war began when Hezbollah began firing cross-border rockets on October 8, 2023, a day after a deadly Hamas-led incursion into southern Israel sparked a war in Gaza. Israel responded with shelling and airstrikes in Lebanon, and the two sides locked in an escalating conflict that escalated into a full-scale war in late September 2024.