By This Hour World News Desk
Israeli forces are consolidating positions inside southern Lebanon, the United Nations peacekeeping mission says, as a BBC reporting trip into the area found Israeli military activity, newly built service roads and villages left inaccessible to many civilians. The account points to a more durable military footprint than a temporary cross-border operation, though the precise scale and intended duration of Israel’s presence cannot be independently settled from the information available.
The territory controlled by Israel amounts to roughly 5% of Lebanon and reaches as far as 10 kilometres from the border in some places, the BBC reported. Israeli officials have described their objective as a security zone intended to protect northern Israeli communities from rockets, drones and a possible ground attack by Hezbollah. But an Israeli defence minister’s instruction to prepare for a long-term presence, together with UNIFIL’s observations of fortification and engineering work, has intensified concern in Lebanon that the positions may become entrenched.
For residents of the south, the issue is not merely the line on a military map. The BBC joined a UNIFIL humanitarian mission that was escorting civilians to and from Christian villages near the frontier. Those communities, which the report said were spared the invasion and attacks that struck surrounding areas, are now cut off from the rest of Lebanon by the Israeli-controlled zone. Access itself depends on arrangements between Israel and the UN mission.
Nine reported military positions inside the invaded area
UNIFIL says Israeli forces have established four new bases in the invaded areas, taking the total number of positions there to nine. The mission’s account is significant because it describes not simply troop movement but physical preparations consistent with maintaining positions: consolidation, fortification, protective construction and other engineering work.
A UNIFIL spokeswoman said the mission had also seen people who appeared to be Israeli civilians undertaking demolition and engineering activity in support of military operations in southern Lebanon. The description does not establish the identity, employment or authority of every person observed. It does, however, indicate that the work witnessed by peacekeepers extended beyond the movement of uniformed forces.
During its visit, the BBC saw Israeli flags marking the start of the area under Israeli control near Naqoura, after a Lebanese military checkpoint described as the last visible sign of state presence on that route. The reporting team travelled with a convoy led by Finnish personnel serving with UNIFIL. The BBC said it observed Israeli soldiers, roads constructed after the invasion and residential buildings being used by Israeli forces. Some of those buildings were covered with netting that the report described as protection from Hezbollah explosive drones.
The team also heard surveillance drones and explosions in the distance. It said the blasts might have come from demolitions, but did not present a conclusive identification of their cause. That distinction matters in an environment where airstrikes, shelling, demolitions and drone activity have all been reported and where access is sharply constrained.
Israel did not provide answers to the BBC’s more specific questions about actions in the controlled areas. In a response concerning destroyed buildings, the Israeli military said they had been used by Hezbollah for military purposes and said it operated in accordance with international law. Human rights groups, meanwhile, have said that some Israeli actions in southern Lebanon may constitute deliberate destruction of civilian infrastructure and could amount to a war crime. The material provided does not identify individual sites, offer legal findings, or allow that allegation to be adjudicated.
A ceasefire has not ended the reported violence
The BBC placed the latest escalation in the aftermath of a June cessation of violence in Lebanon that formed part of a preliminary US-Iran deal intended to end their conflict. The current war began in March after Hezbollah fired rockets into Israel following the killing of Iran’s supreme leader at the opening of the US and Israel’s war with Iran, the BBC reported.
Since the June agreement, a Lebanese intelligence official told the BBC that Lebanon’s military had recorded more than 5,000 alleged Israeli violations. The tally included airstrikes, drone attacks, shelling and incursions by Israeli soldiers beyond the Israeli-controlled area, described in the report as the Yellow Line. Because the number comes through a Lebanese intelligence official and the underlying incident records are not supplied here, it should be treated as Lebanon’s military assessment, not as a fully independently verified count.
The official argued that the continuing bombardment, fires and demolitions were preventing displaced people from returning to villages near the border. The BBC reported that hundreds of thousands of Lebanese remain displaced and do not know when, or whether, they will return. It also described abandoned crops and large-scale destruction along parts of the southern route it travelled.
Israel says some of its strikes in Lebanon address immediate threats. The BBC reported that, in many instances, it was unclear how immediate those alleged threats were or whether there was a threat at all. Hezbollah has not carried out attacks against Israel since the ceasefire took effect, according to the BBC’s account, but it has targeted Israeli troops operating inside Lebanese territory. The group is regarded as a terrorist organisation by countries including the United Kingdom and the United States.
Those competing accounts explain why the ceasefire is less a settled end to fighting than an unstable restraint on some forms of violence. Lebanon alleges persistent Israeli breaches. Israel cites threats from Hezbollah and says its military action is lawful. Hezbollah’s reported attacks on Israeli troops in Lebanon add another active point of confrontation. The supplied accounts do not provide a common mechanism for resolving those rival characterisations of particular incidents.
Withdrawal is tied to Hezbollah’s weapons
Israel has conditioned withdrawal from Lebanon on Hezbollah’s disarmament. That demand puts the dispute at the centre of Lebanon’s internal political and security balance: the Lebanese government cannot deliver disarmament without Hezbollah’s agreement, the BBC reported.
Direct talks between the two countries produced a US-brokered framework involving designated pilot zones. Under that framework, Israel would withdraw from certain areas, Lebanese army soldiers would deploy, and Hezbollah’s disarmament would be verified. Yet the plan has not advanced. Hezbollah opposes it and says discussion of its weapons can take place only after a complete Israeli withdrawal. Israel says Lebanon’s national military has not done enough.
The Lebanese military rejects using force against Hezbollah on the grounds that it could set Lebanese against Lebanese. That position narrows the government’s practical room to meet Israel’s condition, while Hezbollah’s opposition limits the chance of voluntary compliance. The BBC described Hezbollah as still a significant military force despite setbacks in recent wars.
A European diplomat familiar with the matter told the BBC that the pilot-zone idea appeared stalled until circumstances changed. The diplomat’s view was that Israeli forces were becoming entrenched and could remain for the time being. It is an assessment, not a confirmed Israeli policy. Still, it aligns with the reported new bases, protective works and the Israeli defence minister’s stated preparation for a long-term presence.
The BBC reported no expectation of a major shift before an Israeli election due at the end of October. Whether political timing is the decisive obstacle is uncertain. There is also no indication in the available material that Israel has accepted a timetable for withdrawal, that Hezbollah has altered its position on disarmament, or that the pilot-zone framework has acquired a means of enforcement acceptable to both sides.
The peacekeeping mission is approaching its own deadline
The dispute is unfolding as UNIFIL, the UN force that has provided one of the few channels for access and civilian escorts in the south, is scheduled to end on December 31. Associated Press described the mission as an 8,100-member force and reported that the UN secretary-general had proposed options for managing the Israel-Hezbollah conflict after its departure.
The source material does not detail those options, so their operational effect cannot be assessed. Nor does it say whether a replacement mechanism would retain UNIFIL’s ability to accompany humanitarian missions, monitor military positions or help maintain arrangements that allow movement through the Israeli-controlled area.
That deadline raises immediate practical questions. The BBC’s trip illustrates how access to isolated communities has depended on a UNIFIL convoy and deconfliction with Israel. UNIFIL’s reported observations also offer one of the few on-the-ground accounts of construction and demolitions in territory that civilians cannot freely enter. If the mission ends without a comparable arrangement, visibility over the area and access for affected communities could change substantially.
For now, the facts reported by the BBC and UNIFIL describe a widening set of Israeli positions and work to protect them. Israel frames the presence as a response to threats from Hezbollah; Lebanese officials portray it as an expanding occupation that is blocking return. The ceasefire has not produced agreement on withdrawal or disarmament, and the approaching end of UNIFIL adds a separate deadline to a conflict whose core terms remain unresolved.
