Is Israel’s ‘buffer zone’ inside Lebanon an attempt to grab gas reserves?
Key takeaways
- Israeli zone extends into Lebanon’s maritime territory, raising fears that it could become a long-term ‘resource grab’.
- Israel claimed it required the buffer zone – which stretches roughly 10km (6 miles) north of the Lebanon-Israel border and represents about 6 percent of Lebanese territory – to prevent attacks from Hezbollah fighters.
- Since then, Israeli troops attacked well beyond the Yellow Line, raising concerns about what the country might also seek from Lebanese waters.
Why this matters: an international story with cross-border implications worth tracking.
Israeli zone extends into Lebanon’s maritime territory, raising fears that it could become a long-term ‘resource grab’.
xwhatsapp-strokecopylinkgoogle Add Al Jazeera on Googleinfo People sit on rocks on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, amid escalating hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, as the U.S.-Israeli conflict with Iran continues, in Beirut, Lebanon, April 4, 2026 [Yara Nardi/ Reuters]By Alex Milan Durie Published On 12 Jun 202612 Jun 2026Israel’s imposition of a “security buffer zone” in southern Lebanon that extends into Mediterranean waters has alarmed experts who say it’s a bid to occupy Lebanon’s maritime territory, which has potential oil and gas reserves.
A map of the “buffer zone”, which is demarcated by what Israel calls the “Yellow Line”, was announced by Avichay Adraee, the Israeli army’s Arabic-language spokesperson, on April 19, days after the United States brokered a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon.