Israel says established a ‘yellow line’ in Lebanon, as it has in Gaza | US-Israel war on Iran News

Israeli forces say they have established a so-called “yellow line” in southern Lebanon, similar to an Israeli military measure in the besieged Gaza Strip.

The Israeli military said in a statement on Saturday that over the previous 24 hours, its forces “operating south of the Yellow Line in southern Lebanon identified terrorists who violated the ceasefire understandings and approached the forces from north of the Yellow Line in a manner that posed an immediate threat”.

It is the first time the Israeli military has referred to such a “yellow line” in Lebanon, and comes after a 10-day ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon came into effect on Thursday.

Since a ceasefire in Gaza took effect in October, Israel’s so-called “yellow line” has divided the Palestinian territory into separate zones, with an eastern area controlled by the Israeli military and a western area where Palestinians face fewer restrictions on their movement.

Israeli troops routinely fire on anyone approaching the line, and they have demolished hundreds of homes in the zone under their control.

Reporting from Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank, Al Jazeera’s Nour Odeh said the Israeli military’s announcement of a “yellow line” in Lebanon appeared to represent the “continuation of the ‘Gazafication’ of southern Lebanon”.

“Israeli Minister of Defence Israel Katz had said that the army has been instructed to demolish the Lebanese villages on the border based on the Beit Hanoon and Rafah models, and we know exactly what that looks like because there’s nothing left there,” she said.

“In Lebanon, it may not be, at least for now, to expand the area occupied in southern Lebanon. But, certainly, the demolition of Lebanese villages continues, and the minister of defence has also drawn an equivalence between Shia villages and Hezbollah infrastructure in the same way he considered Palestinians in Gaza to represent Hamas and to be an equal threat to Israel,” she added.

Despite the ceasefire, Israel has continued to carry out attacks in southern Lebanon. Israeli artillery attacks on Saturday hit the southern Lebanese towns of Beit Leif, Qantara and Touline, while the military has continued razing homes across several areas.

In a statement, the military said it waged the attacks in response to fighters approaching areas where Israeli soldiers are still stationed in southern Lebanon, claiming they posed “an imminent threat”.

“Actions taken in self-defence and to remove immediate threats are not restricted by the ceasefire,” the military added.

Ceasefire ‘must be from both sides’

Later on Saturday, Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem said that the ongoing 10-day truce with Israel cannot continue unless both sides uphold it.

“A ceasefire means a complete cessation of all hostilities. Because we do not trust this enemy, the resistance fighters will remain in the field with their hands on the trigger, and they will respond to violations accordingly,” Qassem said in a statement read out on TV.

“There is no ceasefire from the side of the resistance only; it must be from both sides.”

Qassem also demanded that Israel completely withdraw from Lebanon.

The next steps, Qassem said, would focus on the release of prisoners and the return of residents to their homes in the border areas.

A final step, he said, would involve a significant reconstruction campaign, coupled with international Arab support.

He also added that Hezbollah is “open to cooperation with the [state] in Lebanon on a new page” based on achieving their “national sovereignty and preventing strife”.

Thursday’s ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah comes after a previous one, which had ostensibly been in effect since November 27, 2024. But the United Nations has counted more than 10,000 Israeli ceasefire violations since then, as well as hundreds of Lebanese deaths.

Israel has repeatedly told the Lebanese government that Hezbollah must be disarmed for any truce to last.

For its part, Hezbollah has said that Israel needs to withdraw from the country’s southern region first as part of the 2024 ceasefire deal agreed between the armed group and Israel.

The Lebanese government has been uneasy about Hezbollah’s influence in the country. Last December, the government said it was close to completing the disarmament of Hezbollah south of the Litani River before a year-end deadline as part of the 2024 ceasefire deal with Israel.

At the start of the latest conflict, the Lebanese government also outlawed Hezbollah’s military wing. But the government has also always been apprehensive of Israel’s actions. Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun also previously refused to speak directly with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about their differences.

On Thursday, while announcing the ceasefire between Lebanon and Israel, US President Donald Trump revealed that Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu and Lebanon’s President Aoun could meet ⁠in Washington over ⁠the ⁠next week or two for negotiations on ending the fighting.