Lebanon will file a complaint to the United Nations Security Council alleging that Israel is building walls in southern Lebanon, an accusation Israel has denied, the Lebanese presidency said Saturday.
The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) said on Friday that the Israeli army had built walls on the Lebanese side of the UN-demarcated Blue Line, the de facto border.
When asked by AFP about the accusation, the Israeli military said, “The wall does not cross the Blue Line.”
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun’s office said he had instructed officials “to file an urgent complaint to the United Nations Security Council against Israel for constructing a concrete wall on Lebanon’s southern border exceeding the Blue Line.”
He requested that the complaint “be accompanied by reports issued by the United Nations refuting the Israeli denial of the wall’s construction.”
According to UNIFIL, last month, observers surveyed a concrete T-wall erected by the Israeli army southwest of Yaroun and found that it “crossed the Blue Line, rendering more than 4,000 square meters of Lebanese territory inaccessible to the Lebanese people.”
Spanish UNIFIL observers read a map during a patrol in the southern Lebanese village of Al Mari, near the border with Israel, on January 7, 2025, amid a fragile truce between Israel and Hezbollah. (Anwar Amro / AFP)
A survey this month of additional construction showed “a section of wall southeast of Yaroun also crossed the Blue Line,” the UNIFIL statement added, calling it a violation of Lebanon’s sovereignty.
The observer force said it had informed the Israeli army of the October findings and requested that it move the wall.
A ceasefire in November last year sought to end more than a year of hostilities, including two months of all-out war between Israel and the Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah.
Work on a border wall to replace Israel’s aging fence with Lebanon began in 2018 but has progressed slowly, mainly due to budget constraints.
A photograph taken from the southern Lebanese village of Maroun al Ras shows a concrete barrier wall that the Israeli army began constructing south of the Blue Line, which separates Lebanon and Israel, between the northern Israeli village of Avivim and the Lebanese area of Jal al-Deir, on November 12, 2025. (Rabih DAHER / AFP)
In early 2023, the IDF ramped up construction of the wall, which then halted with the start of the war on October 7, 2023, with the Hezbollah terror group launching attacks on Israel. Since the November 2024 ceasefire, work has resumed on the border wall, along with the construction of dozens of new army posts on the Israeli side of the border.
“Since the start of the war, and as part of lessons learned from it, the (Israeli military) has been advancing a series of measures, including reinforcing the physical barrier along the northern border,” the IDF said.
Under the truce, Israel was to withdraw its forces from south Lebanon, but it has kept them in five areas it deems strategic.
It has also kept up regular strikes on Lebanon, mainly saying it is targeting Hezbollah sites and operatives.
Friday’s UNIFIL accusation came a day after Israel struck a Hezbollah weapons depot and adjacent underground site in southern Lebanon, the latest in near-daily Israeli airstrikes against Hezbollah targets in the region, with Israel accusing the Iran-backed terror group of seeking to re-establish itself in violation of the ceasefire deal.
Emanuel Fabian contributed to this report.
