Israel says established a ‘yellow line’ in Lebanon, as it has in Gaza

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.