What is the Blue Line?

The modern implications of the Blue Line stem from before there even was a State of Israel or a State of Lebanon. In 1916, the British and French imperial powers signed the Sykes-Picot Agreement dividing the Ottoman Empire between them, including what would later become Israel and Lebanon.

Seven years later, in 1923, British officer Lieutenant Colonel Newcombe and French officer Lieutenant Colonel Paulet convened to further map out the borders in the area as part of the Paulet-Newcombe agreement. These markings, along with the Sykes-Picot Agreement and a preliminary agreement in 1920, formed the basis of the proposed borders.

After declaring independence in 1948, Israel was attacked by six Arab armies. When the war ended in 1949, the Armistice Agreement between Israel and Lebanon was signed, and the Armistice line was drawn between the two countries. 

In 1967, during the Six Day War, Lebanese fighter jets attacked an Israeli village which resulted in the effective nullification of the Armistice line.

Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Palestinian terrorists used southern Lebanon as a launching ground for various terror attacks against Israel.

After the First Lebanon War, in 1984, Israel established a security zone in southern Lebanon to serve as a buffer between Israeli civilians and Palestinian and Hezbollah terror attacks from Lebanon. Israel continued to maintain its presence in southern Lebanon in order to protect northern Israeli towns and cities until May 2000. 

The United Nations Secretary-General confirmed Israeli withdrawal and compliance with United Nations Security Council Resolution 425.

The Blue Line is recognized by both Israel and Lebanon and is marked and observed by the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) with blue barrels.

Additionally, Israel constructed a fence—entirely on Israel’s side of the Blue Line, as confirmed by the United Nations—several years after the marking of the Blue Line. In some places, the distance between the Israeli fence and the Blue Line can be hundreds of meters. Consequently, crossing the fence does not mean crossing the Blue Line into Lebanon, it only means that the IDF crossed its own fence.

In July 2006, the Hezbollah terror organization launched an attack on Israel, targeting an Israeli army patrol near the border fence. The operatives crossed the Blue Line, killed three soldiers, and abducted two other reservist soldiers. Before Israel could respond, Hezbollah fired mortal shells and rockets at civilians living in northern Israel. What followed was the Second Lebanon War, which was concluded by UN Security Council Resolution 1701.

In November 2018, the IDF launched Operation Northern Shield to expose and destroy terror tunnels dug by Hezbollah from southern Lebanon into Israel. The tunnels crossed under the Blue Line, violating the terms of UN Resolution 1701.

The IDF remains committed to protecting Israeli civilians from the threat of Hezbollah and all terror organizations.