Displaced Israelis' demand for Lebanon buffer zone poses dilemma for ceasefire negotiators

Israelis forced from their homes in the north are demanding the creation of a neutral zone on the Lebanese side of the border

People take cover as sirens sound to warn of incoming rockets, during a funeral ceremony in the northern town of Mitzpe Netofa. AFP

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Israelis from the country’s north will return to their homes only if there is a buffer zone patrolled by Israeli or international troops within south Lebanon that would prevent Hezbollah from returning to the area, displaced people in Jerusalem told The National.

Israel says its cross-border ground invasion, launched last month, aims to destroy Hezbollah's capabilities, but some residents of the north who have been forced from their homes are now calling for a buffer zone to limit the risk of further attacks by the Iran-backed group.

“The [Israeli] army has to stay there until the world gives us a solution," said Simi Aflalo, 70, from Kiryat Shimona, a city of 25,000 people near the border. "If you don’t want us to occupy, participate with us."

Their demand poses a dilemma for Israeli authorities, who say they do not want to occupy south Lebanon. In September, Israel made the return of people who fled their homes in the north an official objective of its war with Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza. But a long-term presence of Israeli troops across the border, or the formation of a US-led military force in the area, are options that Lebanon and mediators would not accept.

About 68,500 Israelis left their homes in the north following the Hamas attacks on southern Israel of October 7 last year, according to the Jerusalem-based Taub Centre think tank. About 1,200 people were killed in the assault and another 251 were taken hostage to Gaza, sparking a war in the strip that has killed in excess of 43,300 Palestinians. The government-ordered evictions from northern Israel came amid fears that Hezbollah would attempt a similar ground raid, and as the Iran-backed group began launching rockets across the border in support of Hamas.

More than 1.3 million people have been displaced and nearly 3,000 killed over the past year in Lebanon. In Israel, 70 people have been killed by cross-border rocket and drone strikes, the Israeli government says.

Most Israelis displaced from the north have been housed in hotels paid for by the Israeli government, while others have found accommodation with friends or relatives. Nearly a third are out of work and are dissatisfied with the level of government support, according to a recent survey by the Maagar Mochot research institution near Tel Aviv.

By contrast, only a fraction – about 15 per cent – of Lebanese people displaced by the conflict are staying in official shelters, with many sleeping in the streets or forced to pay high rent in temporary accommodation.

The demand from displaced Israelis is a factor in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ability to achieve the war objective of returning them home. But it also runs counter to a US-proposed draft for a truce in southern Lebanon circulated last week. The plan says the Lebanese army should be responsible for security in the border area, that Israeli troops would have to leave, and makes no mention of putting US soldiers on the ground.

“I don’t see a scenario where any government – not just the Lebanese government – would accept such conditionalities or diktats of who gets to live where,” said Maha Yahya, director of the Carnegie Middle East Centre think tank. “This is not only an infringement on Lebanese state sovereignty but these are people’s ancestral homes and most of the land is private property. Lebanese army patrols and monitoring of border areas along with Unifil would be acceptable and doable.”

In interviews, the displaced Israelis said they did not trust Unifil, the UN peacekeepers mandated to monitor a cessation of hostilities in south Lebanon following the 2006 Hezbollah-Israel war. Many Israelis accuse the force of failing to curb the Lebanese militant group, which maintains a presence in the area. Lebanon accuses Israel of violating UN Security Council resolution 1701, which was adopted to end the 2006 conflict, by continuing to fly warplanes over its territory and occupying portions of its land.

“Who would protect this area? Not Unifil,” said Haggai Selek, 51, a municipal official from Shlomi, a town of about 10,000 people that sits beside the Blue Line, the demarcation boundary between Israel and Lebanon. “If it’s not us, it has to be a strong army, like the United States. If nobody wants to do that, then the Israeli army could go inside and protect. And if someone enters this buffer zone from either Lebanon or Israel, they are shot.”

Michal Laufer, 53, lived in Kibbutz Dan, a few kilometres from the border, before fleeing with her family following the October 7 attacks.

Ms Laufer, owner of a children’s games company, also called for a buffer zone within Lebanon patrolled by foreign troops. “It could be our army – I don't know what other army, it could be the American army,” she said in a phone interview from Tel Mond in central Israel. She has since moved again, renting accommodation in Hoshaya, near Nazareth.

The Israeli military says it is conducting precise raids on Hezbollah targets in Lebanon. But the operations have exacted a devastating toll and many Lebanese are horrified and distraught at the level of damage. Any buffer zone would include areas home to hundreds of thousands of Lebanese civilians – many in houses built by families over generations.

“The toll on the population has been exacerbated by the destruction of critical infrastructure including health care, with many hospitals overwhelmed and reportedly urgently requesting blood donations to address the critical influx of casualties,” the UN’s Lebanon office for co-ordination of humanitarian affairs said last week.

According to satellite imagery collected by the Associated Press, the Israeli military has destroyed and damaged much of south Lebanon and has blown up entire villages where it said Hezbollah was stockpiling weapons. Last month footage showed the south Lebanese border village of Mhaibib being demolished in a series of detonations.

Some displaced Israelis saw the killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in an Israeli strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs in September as an opportunity for peace.

“As a kid, Hassan Nasrallah was the most terrifying man. We used to play ‘Hassan Nasrallah is coming’,” said Shulamit, 40, from Kiryat Shimona, who gave her first name only. "He was a big, evil person and now he is not there. I think there is a chance to do something different."

The contours of an agreement to end the fighting remain elusive, however. "With or without an agreement, the key to restoring the calm and security in the north, the key to returning our residents in the north safely to their homes, is – first of all – to push Hezbollah beyond the Litani,” Mr Netanyahu said in a statement released by his office after he visited the Israel-Lebanon border on Sunday. The Litani river stretches up to 30km from the Lebanon-Israel border, an area from which UN resolution 1701 ordered Hezbollah fighters to withdraw in 2006.

Israel previously occupied south Lebanon between 1982 and 2000, when it left in a chaotic withdrawal following years of clashes between militant groups in the area. Any new occupation would require Israel to comply with specific provisions of international law, including not expelling the local population or moving in its own civilians.

The Israeli military referred a question on whether it was planning to occupy south Lebanon to political officials. In a response to a question from The National, Israeli government spokesman David Mencer said the country has "no intention or desire" to occupy Lebanon and that, "when this situation with Hezbollah is sorted", its forces would withdraw to the Blue Line.

Israel’s military leadership is eager to end the fighting in Lebanon and come to a diplomatic agreement, analysts said.

“For the defence establishment, bleeding soldiers in a war of attrition is not in its interest," said Mairav Zonszein, a senior Israel analyst at the International Crisis Group think tank. "Occupying Lebanon is not in its interest – they want to get a deal, and then the big question in the deal is, how do you enforce it? What happens the first time a missile is fired?”

The US-proposed draft circulated last week suggests assigning a US Central Command official to oversee enforcement, allows Israel to continue operations in Lebanese airspace and act against perceived threats, making it difficult for Beirut to approve, The National previously reported.

According to Mr Selek, while many displaced Israelis are out of work, some may not return because they have found better quality of life elsewhere. He is among them.

“I’m not going to go back. I want to live here with my family," he said. "I am 51 years old. I got to be a big manager, but it was tough where I lived. If I was in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv or Herzliya, it would have been easy to progress for myself and my family."

Others who do want to go home acknowledged removing Hezbollah from south Lebanon long term might not be realistic, and that it is impossible to tell if its fighters would return.

"We can't know," Shulamit said. "The perfect thing for me is that I can visit Lebanon. I don't want them to die. I don't want them to suffer. I want Hezbollah to not be there."