The Israeli Army replicates the ‘Gaza model’ in southern Lebanon

Now, however, Israel has admitted that its objective goes further: invade the south of the country. The person in charge of verbalizing this shift, which was otherwise expected, was the Minister of Defense, Israel Katz, who this Tuesday assured that Israel will control that area of ​​Lebanon. This is a strip that represents around 10% of the national territory and where some 150 communities are concentrated, with a total population of around 250,000 inhabitants.

In this way, Katz put in writing what the Executive of Benjamin Netanyahu had hinted in previous days, when he called for the mobilization of thousands of reservists for a ground invasion of the neighboring country and increased the bombings.

The pretext? Deal the “final blow” to Hezbollahthe Lebanese Shiite militia allied with the Ayatollah regime that, after more than 15 months of ceasefire, resumed bombing against northern Israel in response to the war started almost a month ago by the US and Tel Aviv against Iran.

“The Gaza Model”

The objective, according to military sources cited by the Israeli newspaper Ynet Newsis “implementing the Gaza model, but in Lebanon.” This model involves first destroying the contact towns: accelerate eviction and destruction of the villages along the border that, according to the Israeli authorities, “serve as an outpost for terrorists.

In parallel, Israel has continued with the demolition of the bridges and roads that connect the north with the south, despite the fact that, according to international lawattacks against civilian infrastructure—including homes and bridges— are, in principle, prohibited.

Finally, the objective is to create an empty strip, “clean” of civilian presence and considered hostile. A supposed “defensive buffer zone”, also called “security”. It is, after all, turning the Litani into a replica of the Yellow Line that the October truce drew in Gaza. An internal border that leaves behind a vast ghost zonealmost half of the territory, under the control of Israeli forces.

Katz himself, in his statement, stressed that the Israeli Army is “following the model of Rafah and Beit Hanoun”two Gazan cities devastated after more than two years of war in the Palestinian enclave and which remain under Israeli military control.

He has not been the only one to air his true intentions. At the beginning of March, the Minister of Finance, the ultranationalist Bezalel Smotrichwarned that “very soon, Dahiyeh [los suburbios del sur de Beirut] It will look like Khan Yunis,” referring to the second largest city in the Gaza Strip, whose infrastructure was almost completely destroyed during the war.

He then stated that Israel “should annex the south from Lebanon to the river“, collects Reuters. Such annexation would constitute a violation of Lebanese sovereignty and territorial integrity, as UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the 2006 war, calls on Israel to withdraw from southern Lebanon below the so-called Blue Line (an unofficial border) and Hezbollah to retreat north of the Litani River.

This intermediate strip, of about 30-32 kilometers conceived as a buffer zone, is an area where, on paper, only the Lebanese Army and the blue helmets of UNIFIL, the UN provisional force for Lebanon, can be deployed. In recent years, however, the pro-Iran militia has never fully withdrawn from the area.

Beyond Iran

In the last two weeks, in which Israeli forces have intensified airstrikes against Lebanon, more than a thousand have died of people – including dozens of children – and thousands have been injured, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Health.

Furthermore, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) estimates that about a million people They have been forced to leave their homes. But the displaced “will not be able to return south of the Litani River until the safety of the residents of northern Israel is guaranteed,” the Israeli Defense Forces have ordered.

They thus describe a scenario that points to a de facto occupation and a prolonged displacement over time. In fact, as explained in a newsletter Celebrate Paidmanaging director for the Middle East at Eurasia Group, “Israel is likely to continue bombing Hezbollah targets throughout the country, even beyond the conflict with Iran.”

Existential threat

For the moment, Hezbollah, which was weakened last year in the context of the war in Gaza, has stated that it will fight to prevent Israeli troops from occupying southern Lebanon, considering these actions as an “existential threat” for the Lebanese State.

Prominent Hezbollah legislator Hassan Fadlallah insisted in statements to the agency Reuters that any occupation would meet resistance. “We have no choice but to confront this aggression and hold on to the land,” he said.