'Naqoura Tunnel' a New Conflict Issue between Lebanon and Israel

An Israeli crane erects a wall near border, as seen from Lebanon, near Lebanon's Naqoura, March 6, 2018. (Reuters)
An Israeli crane erects a wall near border, as seen from Lebanon, near Lebanon's Naqoura, March 6, 2018. (Reuters)
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'Naqoura Tunnel' a New Conflict Issue between Lebanon and Israel

An Israeli crane erects a wall near border, as seen from Lebanon, near Lebanon's Naqoura, March 6, 2018. (Reuters)
An Israeli crane erects a wall near border, as seen from Lebanon, near Lebanon's Naqoura, March 6, 2018. (Reuters)

A new point of border conflict was added on Monday to the Lebanese-Israeli file after a pro-Hezbollah caretaker minister included the so-called “railway tunnel” established by the English army in the forties between Lebanon and Palestine, to the lingering border dispute between the two countries.

Caretaker Minister of Public Works and Transport Ali Hamieh included the issue under the title “the Occupied Naqoura tunnel”, to two other conflict border points of Shebaa Farms and Kfarshuba Hills, and to the disputed maritime areas where border demarcation is being negotiated under the UN auspices and US mediation.

“Our sovereign rights lie in our decision to restore every inch of the occupied tunnel, besides to our decision to restore our land and maritime borders too,” said Hamieh during a visit to Naqoura where the tunnel lies.

The tunnel was built by the English army between 1942 and 1944 to build a railway for rapid movement between Lebanon and Palestine.

It was closed in 1948 with the declaration of the state of Israel.

According to field sources in south Lebanon, “Israel closed the tunnel with a cement wall and placed concrete barriers inside it within a geographical spot located inside Lebanese territory."

According to the former head of the negotiating delegation on the border with Israel, retired Major General Abdul Rahman Shehaitli, the tunnel lies in Lebanese territories and was closed by Israel, which is occupying the area where the tunnel is located, a long time ago.

The Israeli side "is encroaching on Lebanese territory at this point,” he told Asharq Al-Awsat in remarks.

The tunnel is located directly on the coast of Naqoura (the farthest south of Lebanon), while the Israeli forces installed a gate to the east of it that "encroaches on Lebanese territory for a distance of about 30 meters as well," he added.

“There is no dispute over the point, but Israel is now refusing to acknowledge it or allow the Lebanese to reach it. The point is still a pile of stones since 1923. The Israeli army installed the gate in front of it deep inside Lebanese territory in the year 2000 after the liberation of southern Lebanon,” Shehaitli noted.

During his visit to the tunnel, Hamieh said: “We are on Lebanese soil that is under Lebanese sovereignty...A study was conducted on the railway tunnel, which was built during the Second World War in 1942." He added that "we are now in the process of preparing terms of reference for launching international bids for the establishment of resorts and facilities.”

“We will not give up an inch,” of the land or maritime borders, Hamieh said, “We also want our rights and borders in the tunnel until the last square meter.”

Anti-Hezbollah parliamentary sources said the issue adds a new dispute to the lingering border conflict between Lebanon and Israel.



WHO Says Gaza Health Care at Breaking Point as Fuel Runs Out

In this file photo, Hussam Abu Safiya, the director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital who has since been detained, supervises the treatment of a Palestinian man injured in an Israeli strike - AFP
In this file photo, Hussam Abu Safiya, the director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital who has since been detained, supervises the treatment of a Palestinian man injured in an Israeli strike - AFP
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WHO Says Gaza Health Care at Breaking Point as Fuel Runs Out

In this file photo, Hussam Abu Safiya, the director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital who has since been detained, supervises the treatment of a Palestinian man injured in an Israeli strike - AFP
In this file photo, Hussam Abu Safiya, the director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital who has since been detained, supervises the treatment of a Palestinian man injured in an Israeli strike - AFP

The World Health Organization on Tuesday pleaded for fuel to be allowed into Gaza to keep its remaining hospitals running, warning the Palestinian territory's health system was at "breaking point".

"For over 100 days, no fuel has entered Gaza and attempts to retrieve stocks from evacuation zones have been denied," said Rik Peeperkorn, the WHO's representative in the Palestinian territories, AFP reported.

"Combined with critical supply shortages, this is pushing the health system closer to the brink of collapse."

Peeperkorn said only 17 of Gaza's 36 hospitals were currently minimally to partially functional. They have a total of around 1,500 beds -- around 45 percent fewer than before the conflict began.

He said all hospitals and primary health centres in north Gaza were currently out of service.

In Rafah in southern Gaza, health services are provided through the Red Cross field hospital and two partially-functioning medical points.

Speaking from Jerusalem, he said the 17 partially functioning hospitals and seven field hospitals were barely running on a minimum amount of daily fuel and "will soon have none left".

"Without fuel, all levels of care will cease, leading to more preventable deaths and suffering."

Hospitals were already switching between generators and batteries to power ventilators, dialysis machines and incubators, he said, and without fuel, ambulances cannot run and supplies cannot be delivered to hospitals.

Furthermore, field hospitals are entirely reliant on generators, and without electricity, the cold chain for keeping vaccines would fail.

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said on Monday that 5,194 people have been killed since Israel resumed strikes on the territory on March 18 following a truce.

The overall death toll in Gaza since the war broke out on October 7, 2023 has reached 55,493 people, according to the health ministry.

"People often ask when Gaza is going to be out of fuel; Gaza is already out of fuel," said WHO trauma surgeon and emergency officer Thanos Gargavanis, speaking from the Strip.

"We are walking already the fine line that separates disaster from saving lives. The shrinking humanitarian space makes every health activity way more difficult than the previous day."