UNIFIL 183d ago

We are in a UN position in Yaroun where, nearby, the IDF has been building a wall. Mostly this wall has been on the southern side of the Blue Line, that is on the Israeli side of the Blue Line. But in two places near here, it actually crosses the Line. The first one, which is closest to this position, is larger. And it takes about 4,000 square metres of Lebanese land and puts it behind this Israeli wall. The Blue Line actually goes in a straight line and if you can see the barrels, you can see that they go straight off into the distance. However, you can see that there is part of this new concrete T-wall that does come across the Line into Lebanese territory. This T-wall was made by the IDF and because it crosses the Line into Lebanese territory it's a violation of Resolution 1701. And then further down, there's a very small part that's about 20 square metres, a little bit less, that also crosses the Line. And behind us we can see the blue barrels and a new concrete T-wall that has been built by the IDF. And the Blue Line here is a straight line. Each blue barrel marker that we can see behind me is agreed by both the Lebanese and Israeli sides and you can see the markers go in a straight line but if you look actually you can see a small part of the newly constructed T-wall that crosses the Blue Line. This is a violation of the blue line and a violation of Resolution 1701. We've written to the IDF and urged them to move the wall so that it is on the Israeli side and we'll continue following this up. They have said that they're looking into it, and they'll do their own measurements but nonetheless peacekeepers encourage the parties to respect the Blue Line that they've both agreed to and respect Resolution 1701.