States Should Urgently Act to Prevent Further Abuses and Indefinite Israeli Occupation
(Washington, D.C., April 1, 2026) – States should take immediate action, including imposing an arms embargo and sanctions, to stop Israel from committing further abuses and indefinitely occupying southern Lebanon before its latest expansionist push becomes a fait accompli, said DAWN today.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz on Tuesday said that Israel plans to destroy all Lebanese villages adjacent to the border with Israel, block 600,000 Lebanese citizens from returning to their homes, and occupy southern Lebanon "up to the Litani river" long-term, "just like in Syria and Gaza."
Israel's grave abuses in Lebanon have escalated in recent weeks, with its forced displacement of over 1 million civilians and repeated attacks on civilian infrastructure, including the destruction of entire villages in the south and targeting of parts of Beirut. Israeli authorities' recent statements and actions, combined with their track record of unlawful indefinite occupation and grave repression across Palestine, highlight the urgency for action.
"Under the cover of the war with Iran, Israel is quite openly putting into practice and accelerating its agenda to take over more land, this time in Lebanon," said Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man, director for Israel-Palestine at DAWN. "Its track record in Palestine and across the region makes clear it won't stop without concrete consequences – and states should act before it's too late."
Israel occupied portions of southern Lebanon in October 2024 and, despite a U.S.-brokered ceasefire that year, established at least five permanent military outposts inside Lebanese territory. In March 2026, following the resumption of fighting between Hezbollah and Israel amid the war with Iran, Israeli forces again invaded southern Lebanon. On March 16, 2026 and again on March 31, 2026, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said that Israel was planning to indefinitely occupy the entire area up to the Litani River, which is above 30 kilometers (18 miles) north of the Lebanon-Israel border at its shortest point. Israeli forces have subsequently destroyed the majority of bridges connecting the territory to the rest of the country and forcibly displaced more than 1 million Lebanese citizens, many of whom they ordered to leave their homes indefinitely. Since the resumption of hostilities, Israeli forces have killed over 1,200 people in Lebanon, while Hezbollah has fired hundreds of missiles and drones into Israel, killing at least three civilians.
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who also serves as a minister in the Defense Ministry and sits on the security cabinet, further laid bare Israel's intentions, stating on March 24 that, "the Litani must be our new border with the state of Lebanon, just like the 'Yellow Line' in Gaza and like the buffer zone and peak of the Hermon in Syria," describing a permanent occupation and even annexation of a large part of southern Lebanon. Katz has also cited Gaza as the playbook for Lebanon, stating that Israel will replicate what "was done against Hamas in Rafah, Beit Hanoun, and the terror tunnels in Gaza."
Since October 7, 2023, Israel has destroyed nearly all of the Gaza Strip's civilian infrastructure, systematically destroyed and degraded its health care medical system, damaged or destroyed 81% of all structures including homes, forcibly displaced nearly the entire Palestinian population, and has prevented Palestinian civilians from returning to more than half of the territory, which it continues to occupy with no timeline for withdrawal. Despite a "ceasefire" in place since October 2025, over 1 million Palestinians remain displaced and "lack a safe and secure home to return to," according to the Norwegian Refugee Council.
Israeli authorities claim that the purpose of their incursion into Lebanon is to uproot Hezbollah's military presence and prevent it from reestablishing its ability to threaten Israel from the territory. No military purpose, though, can justify permanent forced displacement of hundreds of thousands of civilians, deliberate attacks on and destruction of civilian infrastructure, permanent occupation or annexation. Such actions would be unlawful and amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity.
"We've seen this playbook from Israel before and this time there should be no ambiguity about what could happen next: whenever Israel has occupied territory, it winds up committing abuses and staying for years and often longer," said Omer-Man. "The international community must act swiftly and strongly to prevent Israeli territorial expansion in Lebanon before it creates even more 'facts on the ground' that are far more difficult to reverse."
Israel has continuously occupied Palestinian territory it captured in war since 1967. In its July 19, 2024 advisory opinion, the International Court of Justice found Israel's occupation to be illegal and tantamount to annexation, violating "the prohibition of the use of force in international relations and its corollary principle of the non-acquisition of territory by force." The court made clear that "Israel's security concerns" do not "override the principle of the prohibition of the acquisition of territory by force."
Israel also occupied Egypt's Sinai Peninsula for 15 years after it captured the territory in the 1967 war, has occupied—and later illegally annexed—the majority of Syria's Golan Heights since 1967, and seized even more Syrian territory following the collapse of the Assad regime in 2024. In Lebanon, Israel occupied large swathes of land along the border, inside Lebanese sovereign territory, from 1982 until the year 2000.
UN Member States should urgently act to ensure Israel does not cement yet another illegal occupation of Lebanon, or at the very least, to ensure they do not contribute to Israel's illegal actions. They should follow the playbook used in response to Russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine, as well as those set out by the UN General Assembly's 2024 Resolution A/RES/79/81 following the International Court of Justice's 2024 advisory opinion, calling on states to use sanctions, diplomatic pressure and economic non-cooperation, among other steps, to help bring about the end of Israel's illegal occupation of Palestine "as rapidly as possible."
In particular, states should: halt arms transfers to Israel; suspend the export of dual-use items that could serve Israel's military occupation of southern Lebanon, including crude and refined oil products; sanction Israeli officials involved in grave abuses; restrict or prohibit the sale of Israeli sovereign debt, bonds, and other financial instruments used to finance military expenditures; and, recall ambassadors from Israel and declare Israeli ambassadors in their respective countries persona non grata.
"By failing to impose meaningful consequences for Israel's more than half-century-long occupation of Palestine, Israel's allies have emboldened it to grab more land, and raze everything, and expel everyone in their path," said Omer-Man. "Israeli impunity, however, can be ended at any time if the world powers on which Israel relies simply say 'no more' and take meaningful action."
