The Litani River, which separates southern Lebanon from the rest of the country, has loomed large in discussions of the war between Israel and Hezbollah. 

For months, Israel warned Hezbollah’s leaders that they must withdraw to the north of the Litani, and in recent weeks, the IDF has alerted Lebanese civilians that they should not travel south of the river. 

Though the IDF has struck Hezbollah strongholds in Beirut, far north of the Litani, the river remains a convenient shorthand, both as a natural feature signifying southern Lebanon, and as an important diplomatic line consistently crossed by Hezbollah for nearly two decades.

The Litani River is Lebanon’s longest river and a major water source for the country. It mostly runs north to south, but part of the river runs from east to west towards the Mediterranean Sea, in parallel to the border between Israel’s Upper Galilee region and southern Lebanon. The section parallel to the Israel-Lebanon border, also known as the Blue Line, is about 17 miles north of Israel.

The population south of the Litani is 75% Shia Muslim, making it a Hezbollah stronghold, while the other 25% are Sunni Muslim, Druze and Christian.

The Litani served as a stand-in for southern Lebanon in U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701, ending the Second Lebanon War in 2006 and creating a buffer zone – in theory. 

Resolution 1701 calls for “the establishment between the Blue Line and the Litani River of an area free of any armed personnel, assets and weapons other than those of the Government of Lebanon and of UNIFIL [the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon] …There will be no weapons or authority in Lebanon other than the Lebanese State,” which “authorizes UNIFIL to take all necessary action…to ensure that its area of operations is not utilized for hostile activities of any kind.”

In the subsequent years, Hezbollah stockpiled weapons and missiles throughout the area between the Litani and Israel, dug tunnels and crossed into Israel with no significant pushback from UNIFIL forces.

Israel repeatedly called on the U.N. to enforce Resolution 1701 throughout the years, to no avail, and Hezbollah’s rocket and missile attacks on Israel since Oct. 8, 2023 are continued violations of that resolution.

Tal Beeri, head of the research department at the Alma Center, a think tank specializing in the security challenges on Israel’s northern border, spoke to Jewish Insider about how Hezbollah views the Litani River in a phone call that was interrupted by a siren due to rockets shot by the Iran-backed terrorist group.

Hezbollah uses the Litani River as a line of demarcation for its “first line of defense” against Israel, Beeri said. It has three units operating in the area, Nasser and Aziz, which divide the territory between them and each has its own stockpile of projectiles to launch at Israel, and the terrorist organization’s special forces, Radwan, which was preparing for an Oct. 7-style invasion and attack on Israel, according to Israeli intelligence.

“Hezbollah invested in spreading military resources throughout the whole area to be prepared to fire [rockets and missiles] at Israel and to prepare for an Israeli ground maneuver,” Beeri said. “The southern edge of this territory, a few kilometers from the border with Israel, is the jump-off point for the Radwan Force to invade Israel.”

The IDF’s current ground maneuver in that zone is meant to “dismantle the clear-and-present danger near the border, to prevent the possibility of Radwan Forces in Israeli territory in the short and long term,” he explained.

Soon after Hezbollah joined Hamas in attacking the Jewish state last October, Israel once again called on the U.N. Security Council to ensure Hezbollah complied with Resolution 1701 and remained north of the Litani, while France and the U.S. engaged in diplomacy throughout the past year to try to avoid an expanded war.

In recent weeks, Israel adjusted its war aims ahead of its expanded operations in Lebanon to include allowing the return of residents of the north safely to their homes. The IDF has eliminated much of Hezbollah’s senior leadership, including Hassan Nasrallah, and is continuing airstrikes north of the Litani River along with ground troops to its south. But whether it hopes to end the war with adherence to Resolution 1701 or for Hezbollah to be disarmed north of the Litani remains to be seen.

Israeli Ambassador to the U.N. Danny Danon told the U.N. Security Council on Friday that “Israel has no desire to be in southern Lebanon. Our goal is to protect our people not to occupy Lebanese territory.” To ensure that, he added, the “council must ensure the right mechanisms are in place for the Lebanese army and UNIFIL to meet their obligations” under Resolution 1701.

An Israeli diplomatic source speculated to JI this week that passing a new U.N. Security Council Resolution ending the war between Israel and Hezbollah would be difficult because China and Russia are more adversarial to the U.S. now than in 2006, and that improvements to 1701 may be the best diplomatic agreement Israel can get at the end of the war. Those improvements would have to include a better monitoring and inspection mechanism in the whole area, as well as on all borders into Lebanon to ensure Iran does not smuggle in weapons, and possibly a demilitarized zone along the border. The source expected many IDF soldiers to be posted in Israel’s north for the foreseeable future.

Beeri said “it’s clear that a diplomatic arrangement is unavoidable” to end the war, and it would ideally include “an effective monitoring system for Hezbollah to be disarmed at least up to the Litani.”

At the same time, Beeri said, “we know that the diplomatic arrangement will not really prevent Hezbollah from reestablishing itself in the territory. We have a lot of experience from Resolution 1701, which was not worth the paper on which it was written, not even an hour later. There apparently cannot be an effective monitoring system that can stand up to a rebuilt Hezbollah, and I don’t see a country sending soldiers to endanger themselves trying. UNIFIL … isn’t capable; it’s a problem.” 

As such, Beeri said Israel must “preserve its ability to act at any point in Lebanon and wherever arms can reach Lebanon … to prevent Hezbollah from rebuilding and growing stronger. The age of containment is over.”

“There won’t be 100% security for Israel, but what must also be clear is that this danger of a potential invasion and massacre like Oct. 7 cannot happen at any cost. That needs to be clear,” he said.

Brig.-Gen. (res.) Yossi Kuperwasser, a fellow at the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs and the former head of research for IDF intelligence, told JI earlier this month that the war can end when there is an agreement that Hezbollah will remain north of the Litani, and since UNIFIL has proven unable to enforce such resolutions, Israel will have to have a system of monitoring river crossings.

“There Litani can only be crossed in a few places, so it can be supervised,” he said. “If we don’t want IDF soldiers there, then we have to monitor from afar … It won’t be simple but the supervision has to be Israeli because no one else will do it.” 

Lobby 1701 is an organization founded by residents of northern Israel after they were evacuated due to Hezbollah shelling, with the express goal of having the resolution enforced. 

The lobby’s founder, Nissan Zeevi, told JI last month that he and other Israelis from the north “trusted the international community and the government of Israel that they would make sure that UNSCR 1701 was implemented and there would be no Hezbollah between the border and the Litani, and that UNIFIL was making sure it would happen … but no one made sure the resolution was being implemented.” 

Now, Zeevi thinks the area south of the Litnai should be “a no-man’s land with nothing there. No terrorists, not even children, nothing … That is the only way to deal with the threat of an anti-tank missile aimed at the window of a home.”