What we know about the buffer zone Israel wants to establish in south Lebanon
Engaged in a new war with Hezbollah, the Israeli army announced this week its intention to establish a buffer zone in southern Lebanon while its forces began advancing into border towns.
What is the purpose of creating this buffer zone and what risks does it pose?
- What does Israel want? -
Israel announced on Tuesday that it was moving to establish a buffer zone in southern Lebanon.
That came as it continued air strikes across Lebanon in response to Hezbollah launching an attack on Israel. The group said it was in retaliation for the killing of Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran.
The announcement came after Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz instructed his soldiers "to advance and take control of additional strategic positions in Lebanon in order to prevent attacks on Israeli border communities".
According to the Israeli army, units under the Northern Command, including infantry, armored and engineering forces, deployed on Wednesday to several positions in southern Lebanon.
According to Israeli army spokesperson Effie Defrin, the goal is to create "a buffer... between our residents and any threat," referring to Hezbollah.
Despite the weakening of Hezbollah in the last war and the Lebanese army taking control of many of their positions, the group is clearly still able to launch attacks on Israeli positions and forces.
A diplomatic source in Beirut, speaking to AFP, said Lebanese officials told him they had been informed that "Israel intends to advance by land in southern Lebanon to a depth ranging between 10 and 15 kilometers".
- Is the idea feasible? -
During its most recent war with Hezbollah, which officially ended with a ceasefire in November 2024, Israel paved the way for creating a buffer zone through widespread destruction of border villages and towns, using a combination of air strikes, controlled demolitions and the bulldozing of fruit and olive tree groves, both before and after the ceasefire.
As a result, most residents of the border areas were unable to return to their villages after the end of the war, with reconstruction stalled and the international community tying its financial support for Lebanon to Hezbollah's disarmament.
David Wood, Lebanon researcher at the International Crisis Group, told AFP that Israel's current bid to establish a buffer zone is "achievable... in a sense".
"Israel has been enforcing effective buffer zones along the border in southern Lebanon since the ceasefire agreement was struck in November 2024. We've seen that Israel has created de facto no-go zones."
The Israeli advance into southern Lebanon and its evacuation order to residents of a vast area stretching some 30 kilometers from the border, caused panic in Lebanon.
Nicholas Blanford, an analyst at the Atlantic Council, said that the Israelis "have already maintained a buffer zone since the ceasefire, and it looks like they just want to expand" it.
"They're talking about taking additional high ground. I don't think they're going to go to the size of the old occupation zone back in the 90s".
From 1982 until 2000 Israel occupied an area 10-20 kilometers deep inside Lebanese territory until it withdrew in the face of Hezbollah which emerged in 1985 specifically to fight the Israeli occupation.
A Lebanese military source expressed fear that "Israel is seeking to entrench a broad security belt in southern Lebanon, similar to the border strip it occupied after its invasion of Lebanon in 1982".
- What risks does it entail? -
Wood said that "the further... Israeli troops advance into Lebanon, the greater the risk that they will face guerrilla-style resistance".
"This could be through Hezbollah, it could be through other armed groups that exist, and it could be from armed groups that don't yet exist."
After over a year in which Hezbollah absorbed Israeli hits without responding militarily, its leader Sheikh Naim Qassem declared on Wednesday that his group was fully in the fight.
Wood said that Hezbollah currently considers that "its previous policy of restraint... is a thing of the past".
On Wednesday, Hezbollah announced it had targeted tanks and, for the first time, engaged in "direct clashes" with Israeli forces in two towns in southern Lebanon.
Blanford explained that "Hezbollah has now gone to war, quite clearly. There's no more hesitancy... So the new buffer zone is just part of that battlescape".
Source: Agence France Presse
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