'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.



Israel Cuts off Gaza’s Southern City of Rafah, Vows to ‘Vigorously’ Expand in the Territory

 Displaced Palestinians flee from east to west of Gaza City after the Israeli military issued evacuation orders in the area, Friday April 11, 2025. (AP)
Displaced Palestinians flee from east to west of Gaza City after the Israeli military issued evacuation orders in the area, Friday April 11, 2025. (AP)
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Israel Cuts off Gaza’s Southern City of Rafah, Vows to ‘Vigorously’ Expand in the Territory

 Displaced Palestinians flee from east to west of Gaza City after the Israeli military issued evacuation orders in the area, Friday April 11, 2025. (AP)
Displaced Palestinians flee from east to west of Gaza City after the Israeli military issued evacuation orders in the area, Friday April 11, 2025. (AP)

Israel announced Saturday it has completed construction of a new security corridor that cuts off the southern city of Rafah from the rest of Gaza, as the military said it would soon expand "vigorously" in most of the small coastal territory. Palestinians were further squeezed into shrinking areas of land.

"Soon, (military) activity will expand rapidly to additional locations throughout most of Gaza and you will have to evacuate the fighting zones," Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a statement, without saying where Palestinians were meant to go.

The statement urged Palestinians to stand up and remove Hamas and release the remaining hostages, saying: "This is the only way to stop the war." There was no immediate Hamas response.

Israeli troops were deployed last week to the new security corridor referred to as Morag, the name of a Jewish settlement that once stood between Rafah and Khan Younis, after the army ordered sweeping evacuations covering most of Rafah, indicating it could soon launch another major ground operation.

Israel has vowed to seize large parts of Gaza to pressure Hamas to release the remaining 59 hostages, 24 of them believed to be alive, and accept proposed new ceasefire terms.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government has also imposed a monthlong blockade on food, fuel and humanitarian aid that has left the territory’s roughly 2 million Palestinians facing acute shortages as supplies dwindle — a tactic that rights groups say is a war crime.

Israel has claimed that enough supplies entered Gaza during the two-month ceasefire that it shattered last month. Aid groups have disputed that.

Netanyahu has said Morag would be "a second Philadelphi corridor," referring to the Gaza side of the border with Egypt farther south, which has been under Israeli control since May 2024. Israel has also reasserted control of the Netzarim corridor, which cuts off Gaza's northern third from the rest of the territory.

The corridors, coupled with a buffer zone that Israel has razed and expanded, give it more than 50% control of the territory.

Katz said Palestinians interested in "voluntarily" relocating to other countries would be able to as part of a proposal by US President Donald Trump. Palestinians have rejected the proposal and expressed their determination to remain in their homeland.

Trump and Israeli officials have not said how they would respond if Palestinians refuse to leave Gaza. But Human Rights Watch and other groups say the plan would amount to "ethnic cleansing" — the forcible relocation of the civilian population of an ethnic group from a geographic area.

Many Palestinians have been crowding into squalid tent camps or the rubble of their previous homes, often displacing multiple times in response to Israel's evacuation orders since the Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7, 2023, killed some 1,200 people, many of them civilians, and sparked the war.

Israel on Saturday ordered the evacuation of areas east of Khan Younis ahead of an attack. Military spokesperson Avichay Adraee added that fighters had fired rockets into Israel from these areas.

Israeli strikes across Gaza continued, killing at least 21 people in the last 24 hours, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants but says most of the over 50,000 Palestinians killed in the war have been women and children.

The ministry said at least 1,500 people have been killed since Israel's surprise bombardment resumed the war last month.

Israel says it has killed around 20,000 fighters in the war, without providing evidence.