Lebanese President Joseph Aoun has released a statement confirming that the government is preparing to file a lawsuit as well as diplomatic action against Israel over a weekend incident in which Israel dropped “toxic” chemicals on Lebanese border territory.
Israel dropped the chemical near a UNIFIL peacekeeper patrol along the border area on Sunday, simultaneously telling the UN that the chemicals were “non-toxic” but also warning that the UN personnel definitely should withdraw from the area and “take cover.”
The chemicals have been reported to be pesticides and general defoliants, though Lebanese labs are still discerning actually which ones were used. The chemicals covered some 540 hectares (about two square miles) of Lebanese farmland and villages.
While whatever chemicals these were may technically not have been immediately lethal to the UN peacekeepers in the area, dropping defoliants on farmland in someone else’s country is, needless to say, suboptimal.
Which is why President Aoun declared the operations “an environmental and health crime” against Lebanese citizens and their land, saying this was a deliberate attempt to threaten the livelihood of southern farmers.
After their 2024 invasion, Israel has made a policy of limiting the ability of the Lebanese to rebuild infrastructure in southern Lebanon, and has pushed a plan to create a “Trump economic zone” out of southern Lebanon, forcibly depopulating the entire area of Lebanese civilians in the name of border security, which would obviously preclude any farming activity. Making the land less farmable, then, could be seen as a continuation of Israel’s agenda for southern Lebanon.
