Israel–Lebanon border

Between two mandates

The secret Sykes–Picot memorandum of 1916 planned an international zone in Palestine south of a line from the coast near Tyre to the Jordan. After the war, Britain wanted the frontier further north, taking in the lower Litani and the headwaters of the Jordan, while Zionist leaders proposed a line on the lower Litani that included the Hasbani and the snows of Mount Hermon. France refused.^[1]

In June 1920 France proposed a line from Ras an-Naqurah east to the Jordan north of Metula, and in December 1920 this became the division between British Palestine and French Lebanon and Syria. Palestine gained the Safad–Metula–Hula region. An Anglo-French commission put up 38 pillars in 1922, and the agreement of 7 March 1923 described the line, cairn by cairn; the League of Nations approved it in 1934.^[1]

“The frontier leaves the Mediterranean Sea at the point called Ras-el-Nakurah (Rosh Haniqra) and follows the crest of the spur to cairn 1”^[1]

An armistice line

After the war of 1948, Israel and Lebanon signed an armistice agreement at Ras an-Naqurah on 23 March 1949. Its line coincided exactly with the old Lebanon–Palestine boundary, and in 1967 the US Geographer described it as relatively quiet.^[1]

The land along it is a transition between Lebanon’s high mountains to the north and the lower hills of Galilee to the south, with rugged valleys, until the line turns north along the rim of the Jordan valley and drops to the Hasbani.^[1]

The Blue Line

In 2000 the UN, working with Lebanese and Israeli officials, identified a ‘line of withdrawal’, the Blue Line, to confirm that Israeli troops had left Lebanon as Security Council resolution 425 required. It follows historical maps that do not always match the ground; both sides accept it, though they disagree in certain areas. The UN stresses that it is not a border: there is no agreed border between Lebanon and Israel. Only about half of its 120 km is marked.^[2]

Security Council resolution 1701 of 11 August 2006 ended that year’s war between Israel and Hezbollah, called for Israel to withdraw south of the Blue Line and for no armed forces other than Lebanon’s army and UNIFIL between the line and the Litani River.^[2]

After the Israel–Hezbollah war that ended with a US-brokered ceasefire in November 2024, Israeli forces withdrew from border villages on 18 February 2025 but kept troops at five overlook positions inside Lebanon. Lebanon’s leaders called this an occupation and a violation of the deal.^[3]