Israel has drawn up a map of a buffer zone in southern Lebanon, the first time it has done so since the ceasefire agreement went into effect in November.
An Israeli drone threw on Thursday leaflets with a map of the zone as it flew over the southeastern town of Shebaa.
The map delineated the zone with a red line, warning people against crossing it. “Anyone who enters the area is putting himself in danger,” read the leaflet.
Some observers said such a move is purely part of Israeli security measures, while others have interpreted it as an attempt to impose a new reality on the ground.
Field sources said Israel had previously thrown similar leaflets in Shebaa in July, warning beekeepers to clear areas Israel had deemed as “sensitive”.
On Wednesday, Israeli Chief of the General Staff commander Eyal Zamir toured areas inside southern Lebanon, in a move seen as consolidating the new security status quo on the border.
Retired Major General Dr. Abdel Rahman Shahtali said that with the new map, Israel is working on imposing a new reality along the border.
This is a very dangerous development, “rather, it is more dangerous than dangerous,” he told Asharq al-Awsat.
He warned that if Lebanon agrees to it, then it is effectively giving up Lebanese territory to Israel.
These areas are defined as Lebanese through official agreements between Lebanon and Syria, he stressed.
The area covered in the new map spans around 50 kms squared. “These are completely Lebanese areas,” Shahtali said.
He explained that Israel is aiming to prevent the owners of these territories from accessing them and planting their crops there, in an attempt to consolidate their gradual occupation, just the way it did in the Syrian Golan Heights.
At first it imposed new field realities before later annexing the Golan, he remarked.
The new map effectively draws a new border between Lebanon and Israel, which may later be used as the basis of any new agreements or settlements in the future. The new measure must be confronted immediately, he urged.
As for Shebaa, Shahtali explained that Israel had occupied one section of the area in 1967 during a war that Lebanon did not even join.
Syrian forces were deployed there at the time and so, Israel viewed the territory as Syrian, he said. Israel expanded its occupation in the following years.
Shahtali demanded that the Lebanese government take an immediate strong response to the development and file a complaint at the United Nations.
