South Lebanon: The Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz has announced the creation of bufferzone, previously located along the border between Israel and the South Lebanon to the Litani river, which is well inside the Lebanese sovereign territory. As per the details, the minister has elaborated plans that the area occupied under the pretext of the buffer zone has the population of 600,000 Lebanese citizens, whose movements will be restricted for the sake of safety of the Israeli citizens in the towns bordering Lebanon.
The IDF plans are the follow up of the Israeli PM Netanyahu go ahed to the IDF for pushing the buffer area till Litani river. the IDF justifies that incursion on the count that during the last one day, the IDF has lost 10 of its elite unit personnel fighting the Hezbollah militants.The IDF will establish a security zone inside Lebanon and maintain full control up to the Litani River, including all remaining bridges. More than 600,000 Lebanese residents evacuated north will be banned from returning south of the Litani. All houses in Lebanese villages near the border will be demolished, using the Rafah and Beit Hanoun model from Gaza, “to eliminate once and for all the threats along the border.”
it may be recalled that previously, the IDF occupied a big chunk of South Lebanon in the follow up of the 1982 invasion of Lebanon. The outcome of that invasion was the relocation of the then dominant trend in Palestinian struggle the PLO to other Arab states, the leadership locating to Tunisia and Syria. During the same time there was low level attrition between the Syrian supported Shia Militia Amal as well as Iranian supported Hezbollah. During that period, based on experiences of the Palestinian land sales to unsuspecting zionist investors, the Supreme Shia Council of Lebanon led by the then senior clerics Ayatollah Husain Fazalullah and Sheikh Mehdi Shamseddine prohibited the citizen of the south Lebanon to sell their land or property to any unknown entity.
Later in June 2000, almost 18 years after the annexation of the South Lebanon chunk and after continued attrition between the Hezbollah and the IDF, the later vacated the area without any alternate arrangement. The current plans are likely the outcome of the events in Gaza and Hezbollah siding in combat with first Hamas and now Iran.
