Litani River
River in southern Lebanon that Zionist leaders since 1919 have sought as a northern border, and the 2026 limit of Israel's declared security zone
The Litani River runs through southern Lebanon and reaches the Mediterranean north of Tyre, about 30 kilometres north of the border with "Israel".[1] From 1919 to 2026 Zionist and Israeli leaders have named it as a desirable northern frontier, for its water and as a security line. Under the 2024 ceasefire it marked the zone that Hezbollah was to leave.[2]
Zionist claims, 1919–1948
In 1919 Chaim Weizmann wrote to David Lloyd George that "the whole economic future of Palestine is dependent upon its water supply… from the slopes of Mount Hermon, from the headwaters of the Jordan and from the Litany [sic] river", and that the "Northern Frontier of Palestine should include the Valley of the Litany, for a distance of 25 miles above the bend".[3] On 24 May 1948 David Ben-Gurion wrote that the Carmeli brigade's role was "to occupy southern Lebanon", and that "A Christian state should be established with the Litani [River] as its southern border. We'll form an alliance with it."[4]
1982
Oded Yinon's 1982 essay described southern Lebanon "up to the Litani river" as "a mostly Palestinian region controlled by the PLO and Major Haddad's state of Christians and half a million Shi'ites".[5]
2024 ceasefire
Under the ceasefire of 27 November 2024, Hezbollah fighters and weapons were to be removed from the area south of the Litani, "a boundary established at the end of the last Israel-Hezbollah war in 2006", and replaced by Lebanese government forces.[2]
2026: a security zone and a border
On 23 March 2026 the finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, said: "The new Israeli border must be the Litani."[1] The next day the defence minister, Israel Katz, said "Israel" would occupy the south up to the river.[6] On 31 March he said the army "would control the area up to the Litani River, including the remaining Litani bridges".[7] The National counted at least eight Litani bridges destroyed or damaged by 23 March.[8] In October 2026 Annahar reported Katz as saying that the army was ready to conduct ground operations in additional areas of Nabatieh and the Litani Basin, evacuate their residents and permanently annex them to the security zone.[9] The settlement campaign Uri Tzafon envisages Israel's northern border "extending to at least the Litani river", according to AFP.[10]
See also
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Al Jazeera, Smotrich urges Israel to annex southern Lebanon as assault intensifies Al Jazeera, 23 March 2026, accessed 22 October 2026.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Ido Vock, Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire comes into effect BBC News, 27 November 2024, accessed 22 October 2026.
- ↑ PALCIT, Quotation from Chaim Weizmann "Our claims to the north are imperatively demanded by the requirements of modern economic life" – 1919 PALCIT, citing Jewish Observer and Middle East Review, 16 November 1973, p. 22, accessed 22 October 2026 (critical).
- ↑ David Ben-Gurion, Diary, 24 May 1948 The Ben-Gurion Archive, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, accessed 22 October 2026 (Israeli-side).
- ↑ Oded Yinon, A Strategy for Israel in the Nineteen Eighties Kivunim, no. 14, February 1982, English translation, Internet Archive copy, accessed 22 October 2026.
- ↑ Alexander Cornwell and Nazih Osseiran, Israel's military to occupy swathe of southern Lebanon, defence minister says Reuters, 24 March 2026, accessed 22 October 2026.
- ↑ Reuters, Israel to establish buffer zone in south Lebanon up to Litani River, defence minister says Reuters, 31 March 2026, accessed 22 October 2026.
- ↑ The National, Israel hits eight Lebanese bridges as Smotrich calls for Litani River border The National, 23 March 2026, accessed 22 October 2026.
- ↑ Annahar, Katz says Israel will hold Lebanese security zone until Hezbollah is disarmed Annahar, 20 October 2026, accessed 22 October 2026.
- ↑ Alice Chancellor, 'Promised to us': The Israelis dreaming of settling south Lebanon Al-Monitor (AFP), 13 May 2026, accessed 22 October 2026.