How Israel’s ‘Yellow Line’ is reshaping southern Lebanon

Demolished homes, shifting military lines, stalled withdrawals leave Lebanese uncertain if they can return.

Smoke rises following an explosion in al-Mansouri, as seen from Henniye, Lebanon, on September 29, 2026 [Mohamed Azakir/Reuters]

Beirut, Lebanon – Ali is from Khiam, a Lebanese village on the southern border with Israel, but for the last few months he has rented a house in Hasbaiyya, about a half-hour drive away to the northeast. He is one of tens of thousands of Lebanese who have been displaced from their homes in villages throughout the south of the country.

“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.”

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Despite a framework agreement between Lebanon and Israel signed in June – with the objective of securing Israel’s phased withdrawal from Lebanon – Israel has continued to occupy large parts of its neighbour’s south, where it has systematically demolished homes and infrastructure in dozens of villages.

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz has previously said that his country’s troops will not be withdrawn from Lebanon, suggesting an extended occupation similar to the last Israeli occupation, which lasted 22 years.

The Lebanese Shia group Hezbollah fired rockets at Israel on March 2, for the first time in more than a year. The Iranian-backed group said the attack was a response to daily Israeli violations of the November 2024 ceasefire and the assassination two days prior of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, at the start of the US-Israeli war on Iran.

Israel responded by intensifying its war on Lebanon for a second time in under two years. Israeli attacks, as well as its reinvasion of southern Lebanon, displaced more than 1.2 million people . Since then, Beirut has entered into US-brokered direct negotiations with the Israeli government, despite the objections of Hezbollah, which has fought Israel since October 2023. The group traces its origins in the 1980s to resistance against Israeli occupation of Lebanese territory.

Yet the Lebanese government continued with the discussions, which eventually resulted in the framework agreement. One element of the agreement was the establishment of “pilot zones”, from which Israel would withdraw and be replaced by the Lebanese Armed Forces, who would then disarm any Hezbollah forces in the area.

Israel currently occupies a zone stretching up to 10 kilometres (6.2 miles) deep into southern Lebanon. Behind the “Yellow Line” that marks the end of that occupation zone, Israel continues to detonate homes . Israel uses the same “Yellow Line” term to refer to the areas it controls in Gaza.

“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,” Mohamad Bazzi, a New York-based political analyst originally from Bint Jbeil in southern Lebanon, told Al Jazeera. “It was a way of applying that Gaza model to Lebanon.”

Around 50 frontline villages, including places like Khiam and Bint Jbeil , have been destroyed.

“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, adding that most of the destruction of the towns had occurred since April, despite several announcements of ceasefires .

“[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,” Ahmad Baydoun, a Lebanese architect and open-source researcher based in the Netherlands, 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 of those towns is Froun, which the Israeli military destroyed via air and drone strikes, but which its troops did not enter.

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

Lines of all colours

The Yellow Line is not the only coloured line used in Lebanon to reference military demarcations. The Blue Line was established in 2000 in the wake of the end of Israel’s years-long occupation of southern Lebanon, with Israeli forces withdrawing behind it.

And there are now discussions in Israel about creating a “Grey Line”. Reports indicate that this line could extend 4 kilometres (2.5 miles) into Lebanese territory. The area behind the Grey Line would remain uninhabited, effectively serving as a buffer zone for Israel, which would not allow Lebanese civilians to rebuild their homes in the area.

“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,” Bazzi, the analyst, said. “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.”

But even within the area on the Israeli-controlled side of the Yellow Line, some villagers remain, reflecting Israeli attempts to play on Lebanon’s sectarian divides. The majority of the population of southern Lebanon is Shia Muslim, but officials from non-Shia areas have said that they have received warnings not to host displaced people in their towns. Even those allowed to stay do not live in total freedom.

“The villages Israel has allowed to remain inhabited inside the Yellow Line are largely Christian and Sunni,” Baydoun explained. “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 new reality of southern Lebanon 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.”

Permanence of displacement

Analysts believe the occupation of southern Lebanon could extend into the foreseeable future. The Lebanese government has promised to erect prefabricated homes in some areas, but it may struggle to provide state services like water, electricity and sewage disposal to areas where infrastructure has been widely damaged or destroyed.

Even if the Israelis were to withdraw, much of the border area lies in complete ruin, collections of dust, rubble and ash lying where homes and agricultural lands once prospered.

“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.

The subject is an open wound for many southerners, forced to continue their lives elsewhere while their homes and lands lie in ruins and under occupation. For them, Israel’s military occupation is reshaping southern Lebanon for the next generation.

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

房屋被毁、军事防线不断变化、撤军停滞不前，让黎巴嫩人不确定自己是否能够返回家园。

2026年9月29日，从黎巴嫩亨尼耶拍摄的照片显示，曼苏里发生爆炸后，浓烟升起。[Mohamed Azakir/路透社]

黎巴嫩贝鲁特——阿里来自黎巴嫩南部与以色列接壤的村庄希亚姆，但近几个月来，他一直在东北方向约半小时车程的哈斯巴亚租房居住。他是成千上万被迫离开黎巴嫩南部村庄家园的黎巴嫩人之一。

“南方人正经历一场悲剧，”不愿透露全名的阿里告诉半岛电视台，“这一切都源于不公正的悲剧和失败的政治。”

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尽管黎巴嫩和以色列在 6 月份签署了一项框架协议，旨在确保以色列分阶段从黎巴嫩撤军，但以色列仍然继续占领其邻国南部的大片地区，并系统性地拆毁了数十个村庄的房屋和基础设施。

以色列国防部长以色列·卡茨此前曾表示，以色列军队不会从黎巴嫩撤出，这暗示着以色列可能会像上次持续 22 年的占领一样，继续长期占领黎巴嫩。

3月2日，黎巴嫩什叶派组织真主党向以色列发射火箭弹，这是该组织一年多来的首次袭击。这个受伊朗支持的组织称，此次袭击是对以色列每日违反2024年11月停火协议以及两天前以色列暗杀伊朗最高领袖阿亚图拉·阿里·哈梅内伊的回应。哈梅内伊的遇刺事件标志着美以对伊朗战争的开始。

以色列的回应是，在不到两年的时间内第二次加强了对黎巴嫩的战争。以色列的袭击以及对黎巴嫩南部的再次入侵，导致超过120万人流离失所。此后，尽管真主党反对，贝鲁特还是在美国的斡旋下与以色列政府展开了直接谈判。真主党自2023年10月以来一直与以色列作战。该组织起源于20世纪80年代，旨在抵抗以色列对黎巴嫩领土的占领。

然而，黎巴嫩政府继续进行谈判，最终达成了框架协议。协议内容之一是设立“试点区”，以色列将从试点区撤出，由黎巴嫩武装部队取而代之，黎巴嫩武装部队随后将解除该地区所有真主党武装。

以色列目前占领着深入黎巴嫩南部10公里（6.2英里）的区域。在划定占领区边界的“黄线”以内，以色列仍在继续炸毁房屋。以色列也用同样的“黄线”一词来指代其在加沙控制的区域。

“以色列的主要目标是清空、驱逐人口，使数十个前线村镇变得不适宜居住，我们现在从卫星图像中已经看到了这一点，”来自黎巴嫩南部宾特杰拜勒、现居纽约的政治分析家穆罕默德·巴齐告诉半岛电视台。“这是将加沙模式应用到黎巴嫩的一种方式。”

包括 Khiam 和 Bint Jbeil 在内的约 50 个前线村庄被摧毁。

“与以往的占领不同，以色列这次的目标是将这些城镇和村庄的居民全部驱逐出去，尽可能多地摧毁房屋和基础设施，并使人们即使不是完全不可能，也极其难以返回家园，”他说道，并补充说，尽管多次宣布停火，但这些城镇的大部分破坏都是自4月份以来发生的。

“（黄线）被视为一条硬性边界，无论是在驻军方面，还是在有控制的村庄拆迁方面，都体现了这一点，尽管已经停火，但拆迁仍在继续，”居住在荷兰的黎巴嫩建筑师兼开源研究员艾哈迈德·巴伊敦告诉半岛电视台。“就好像停火适用于黎巴嫩其他地区，却不适用于这片区域。”

在黄线北侧，居民们已经返回了被摧毁的村庄，其中包括几个被纳入“试点区”计划的城镇。

其中一个城镇是弗伦，以色列军队通过空袭和无人机袭击将其摧毁，但其部队并未进入该城镇。

“我们很惊讶它被列为试点区，”弗伦市市政办公室主任哈桑·巴齐告诉半岛电视台。

各种颜色的线条

黄线并非黎巴嫩唯一用于标示军事边界的彩色线条。蓝线设立于2000年，当时以色列结束了对黎巴嫩南部长达数年的占领，以色列军队撤退至蓝线之后。

目前以色列正在讨论设立一条“灰线”。有报道称，这条线可能向黎巴嫩境内延伸4公里（2.5英里）。灰线后方的区域将保持无人居住，实际上成为以色列的缓冲区，以色列将不允许黎巴嫩平民在该地区重建家园。

分析人士巴齐表示：“以色列在这里推行‘灰线’、‘蓝线’、‘黄线’策略的一部分，是为了制造混乱，掩盖或混淆以色列在当地所作所为的真相，即驱逐黎巴嫩这片广袤领土上的居民，使其变得不适宜居住。最终，这些界线的定义其实并不重要，因为它们经常变化。我们在加沙已经看到了这一点，而问题的关键在于，以色列非法占领、非法摧毁并种族清洗了黎巴嫩南部的大片地区，而世界对此大多保持沉默。”

但即使在以色列控制的黄线一侧，仍有一些村民留守，这反映出以色列试图利用黎巴嫩的教派分歧。黎巴嫩南部人口以什叶派穆斯林为主，但非什叶派地区的官员表示，他们已收到警告，不得在其城镇收容流离失所者。即使是获准留下的人，也无法享有完全的自由。

“以色列允许黄线内继续有人居住的村庄大多是基督教和逊尼派穆斯林聚居区，”巴伊杜恩解释说。“但允许留下并不等同于享有自由生活的权利。在卡法尔舒巴村，市政工人在抽水时遭到绑架，村长本人也被拘留。即使在黄线外的代尔米马斯村，黎巴嫩军队也设立了一个哨所，以便农民能够前往他们的橄榄园，而以色列坦克则开到村口与军队对峙。”

巴伊杜恩将黎巴嫩南部的新现实描述为“留下来的人的西岸化”，指的是以色列对西岸的占领。

他说：“居民可以居住在自己的土地上，但不能自由使用。能否进入田地取决于检查站、协调以及巡逻队的心情。市政官员随时可能被拘留和盘问。这是一种无需清空村庄就能进行管理的控制模式。”

流离失所的永久性

分析人士认为，黎巴嫩南部地区的占领可能会持续到可预见的未来。黎巴嫩政府承诺在部分地区建造预制房屋，但对于基础设施遭到严重破坏或损毁的地区，政府可能难以提供水、电和污水处理等公共服务。

即使以色列人撤离，边境地区的大部分地区也已完全沦为废墟，曾经繁荣的家园和农田如今只剩下尘土、瓦砾和灰烬。

巴齐说：“有些城镇或许可以恢复大量工作，但在大约 50 个前线城镇或村庄，我认为短期或中期内都不可能恢复。”

对于许多南方人来说，这个问题如同一道难以愈合的伤口。他们被迫在别处继续生活，而他们的家园和土地却满目疮痍，沦为占领区。对他们而言，以色列的军事占领正在重塑黎巴嫩南部，并将影响下一代。

“基亚姆村被毁了，什么都没有了，未来10年、15年、20年都不适合居住，”来自基亚姆村的流离失所者阿里说道。“他们把我们带回了石器时代。”