Lebanon will file a complaint with the UN Security Council against Israel over the construction of a concrete wall that extends beyond the so-called Blue Line between Israel and Lebanon, Reuters reported, citing the Lebanese presidency.
"The Blue Line" (the demarcation line between Lebanon and Israel), drawn by the UN, separates Lebanon from Israel and the Golan Heights it occupies. Israeli forces withdrew to the Blue Line when they left southern Lebanon in 2000.
Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, said the wall had made more than 4,000 square meters of Lebanese territory inaccessible to the local population.
The Lebanese government added that Israel's ongoing construction was a "violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701 and an attack on Lebanon's sovereignty and territorial integrity."
Dujarric also said that the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) had requested that the wall be removed.
An Israeli military spokesman denied yesterday that the wall crossed the Blue Line. "The wall, whose construction began in 2022, is part of a broader plan by the Israeli army," he said. The spokesman stressed that "since the beginning of the war and as part of the lessons learned from it, the Israeli army has been taking a series of measures, including strengthening the physical barrier along the northern border".
UNIFIL, established in 1978, operates between the Litani River, in the north, and the Blue Line, in the south. The UN mission has over 10,000 soldiers from 50 countries and about 800 civilian employees, according to the world organization.