Israel’s Yellow Line In Lebanon And The Uncertain Future Of Southern Villages

Israel’s continued occupation of southern Lebanon and the demolition of homes across its frontline villages are raising doubts about whether displaced residents will be able to return, even if Israeli forces eventually withdraw. Despite a framework agreement aimed at securing Israel’s phased withdrawal, Israeli forces continue to control parts of the region, while the destruction of frontline communities threatens to make some areas uninhabitable for years.

According to Al Jazeera, Israel occupies a zone extending up to 10 kilometres (6.2 miles) into southern Lebanon, with the “Yellow Line” marking the end of the occupation zone. Israeli forces have continued demolishing homes within the area despite ceasefire announcements and negotiations between the two countries. Meanwhile, discussions about a proposed “Grey Line” have raised concerns about the possible creation of an additional buffer zone in which Lebanese civilians would not be allowed to rebuild their homes.

Israeli Occupation Leaves Southern Lebanon’s Frontline Villages in Ruins

Ali, a resident of Khiam, a Lebanese village on the border with Israel, has been renting a house in Hasbaiyya, about a half-hour drive to the northeast, for the past few months. He is among tens of thousands of people displaced from villages across southern Lebanon.

“Southerners are living a tragedy,” Ali, who did not wish to give his full name, told Al Jazeera. “This is all from flawed tragedies and failed politics.”

A framework agreement signed by Lebanon and Israel in June was intended to facilitate Israel’s phased withdrawal from the country. However, Israeli forces continue to occupy large parts of southern Lebanon, where homes and infrastructure have been systematically demolished in dozens of villages.

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz has previously indicated that Israeli troops would not withdraw from Lebanon, raising the possibility of an extended occupation similar to the previous Israeli occupation, which lasted 22 years.

The latest escalation followed Hezbollah’s March 2 rocket attack on Israel, its first in more than a year. The Lebanese Shia group, backed by Iran, said the attack was in response to daily Israeli violations of the November 2024 ceasefire and the assassination of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei two days earlier, at the beginning of the US-Israeli war on Iran.

Israel responded by intensifying its military campaign against Lebanon for a second time in less than two years. Israeli attacks and the reinvasion of southern Lebanon displaced more than 1.2 million people.

Beirut subsequently entered into direct negotiations with the Israeli government, brokered by the United States, despite opposition from Hezbollah, which has fought Israel since October 2023. The group traces its origins to resistance against Israeli occupation in the 1980s.

Under the framework agreement, Israeli forces would withdraw from designated ‘pilot zones’ and be replaced by the Lebanese Armed Forces, which would then disarm any Hezbollah forces in the area.

However, the continued occupation and destruction have raised questions about the implementation of the agreement and the prospects of displaced residents returning to their homes.

Yellow Line Marks a Zone of Continuing Destruction

The Yellow Line marks the end of the Israeli occupation zone in southern Lebanon. Israel uses the same term for areas under its control in Gaza.

Al Jazeera reported that around 50 frontline villages, including Khiam and Bint Jbeil, have been destroyed. Mohamad Bazzi, a New York-based political analyst originally from Bint Jbeil, cited satellite imagery in discussing the scale of the destruction.

“Israel’s primary goals were to empty, depopulate, and make those dozens of frontline villages and towns uninhabitable, and we’ve seen that now with the satellite imagery,” Bazzi told Al Jazeera. “It was a way of applying that Gaza model to Lebanon.”

Bazzi said the current campaign differed from previous periods of occupation because of the extent of the destruction and the obstacles it created for displaced residents seeking to return.

“Unlike previous occupations, the Israeli goal this time has been to empty those towns and villages of their residents, push them out, destroy as much of the housing and infrastructure as possible, and to make it extremely difficult if not impossible for people to return to their homes,” he said.

He added that much of the destruction of the towns had taken place since April, despite several announcements of ceasefires.

Ahmad Baydoun, a Lebanese architect and open-source researcher based in the Netherlands, described the Yellow Line as a firm military boundary where demolitions have continued despite the ceasefire.

“[The Yellow Line] is treated as a hard boundary, both in terms of troop presence and the controlled demolition of villages, which continues unabated despite the ceasefire,” Baydoun told Al Jazeera. “It is as if the ceasefire applies to the rest of Lebanon but not to this territory.”

On the northern side of the Yellow Line, residents have returned to devastated villages, including a couple of towns included in the pilot-zone programme.

One such town is Froun, which Israeli forces destroyed through air and drone strikes without entering it.

“We were surprised that it was [included as a] pilot zone,” Hasan Bazzi, president of Froun’s municipal office, told Al Jazeera.

Blue, Yellow and Proposed Grey Lines Shape the Border

The Yellow Line is not the only military demarcation affecting southern Lebanon. The Blue Line was established in 2000 following the end of Israel’s years-long occupation of the region, when Israeli forces withdrew behind it.

Discussions in Israel about establishing a “Grey Line” have raised further concerns about the future of the border region. Reports indicate that the proposed line could extend 4 kilometres (2.5 miles) into Lebanese territory. The area behind it would remain uninhabited, effectively creating a buffer zone in which Lebanese civilians would not be allowed to rebuild their homes.

Bazzi said the use of multiple coloured lines could obscure the extent of the changes taking place on the ground.

“Part of the Israeli strategy here with the Grey Line, Blue Line, Yellow Line is to sow confusion and to hide or obfuscate the reality of what Israel has done on the ground [which is] to depopulate this vast Lebanese territory and to make it uninhabitable,” he said.

He added that the definitions of the lines were often shifting, drawing a comparison with Gaza.

“In the end, it doesn’t really matter what the definitions of these lines are because they are often shifting. We’ve seen that play out in Gaza, and the bottom line is Israel is illegally occupying and has illegally destroyed and ethnically cleansed a huge part of southern Lebanon, and the world sat silent while that happened for the most part.”

The Grey Line remains a proposal under discussion. If established as described in the reports, it could create another buffer zone in which displaced residents would be unable to rebuild their homes.

Residents Face Restrictions Inside Occupied Territory

Some villages within the Israeli-controlled area remain inhabited, particularly Christian and Sunni villages. However, residents who have been allowed to stay continue to face restrictions on their daily lives and access to their land.

The majority of southern Lebanon’s population is Shia Muslim. Officials from non-Shia areas have said they received warnings against hosting displaced people in their towns.

Baydoun said that residents who remained in villages inside the Yellow Line continued to face restrictions on their daily lives.

“The villages Israel has allowed to remain inhabited inside the Yellow Line are largely Christian and Sunni,” he said. “But being allowed to stay is not the same as being free to live. In Kfarchouba, municipal workers were abducted while pumping the village’s water, and the mayor himself was detained. Even in Deir Mimas, a village outside the Yellow Line, the Lebanese army set up a post so farmers could reach their olive groves, and Israeli tanks came to the entrance of the village to confront it.”

Baydoun described the situation as the “West Bankification of those who remained”, referring to Israel’s occupation of the West Bank.

“Residents are permitted to exist on their land but not to use it freely,” he said. “Access to fields depends on checkpoints, coordination and the mood of a patrol. Municipal officials are detained and questioned at will. It is a model of control that does not need to empty a village to govern it.”

His examples included the detention of municipal workers and a mayor, as well as restrictions on farmers trying to reach their olive groves. They illustrate the difficulties residents face in carrying out everyday activities under military control.

Prolonged Displacement Raises Questions About Return

The possibility of a prolonged Israeli occupation has raised concerns about the future of displaced residents and the Lebanese government’s ability to support them.

The Lebanese government has promised prefabricated homes in some areas, but widespread damage to water supplies, electricity networks and sewage systems could complicate the return of displaced residents.

Even if Israeli forces withdraw, extensive damage to homes and infrastructure would make restoring normal living conditions difficult.

“There are some towns where it might be possible to return with significant work, but in the 50 or so frontline towns or villages, I don’t think it will be possible in the short or medium term,” Bazzi said.

Even if Israeli forces withdraw, residents of the hardest-hit frontline villages may be unable to return for years because homes, infrastructure and agricultural land will need to be restored.

Ali, who was forced to leave Khiam, said the destruction had made his village uninhabitable for the foreseeable future.

“Khiam is destroyed, there’s nothing, it’s uninhabitable for the next 10, 15, 20 years,” he said. “They returned us to the Stone Age.”