Israeli aircraft have been observed dropping unidentified chemicals into Lebanese and Syrian territory, forcing UN peacekeepers in Lebanon to withdraw from around a third of their area of operations after Israel informed them of planned aerial activity.
The Israeli army “asked us to stay away from those areas. It’s a violation of UN resolution 1701, it prevents peacekeepers from doing our patrols, and it negatively impacts our operations,” Dany Gafari, a spokesman for the peacekeeping force Unifil, told The National on Tuesday.
Unifil assisted the Lebanese army in collecting samples to be tested for toxicity in co-ordination with the Ministry of Agriculture, with results expected by Wednesday or Thursday. Resolution 1701 is the UN Security Council motion that ended the 2006 war between Hezbollah and Israel.
'Scorched earth'
Israel’s dropping of chemicals into Lebanese territory is part of a “scorched earth” strategy that “could amount to ecocide”, according to Hisham Younes, who heads Green Southerners, an organisation dedicated to conserving southern Lebanon’s environment. He cited Israel's documented use of white phosphorous on southern Lebanese towns.
"They're using every method available to them to guarantee long term effect and impact in the south with the aim of destroying it beyond hope," he said.
It remains unclear how the chemicals have affected foliage and agricultural land near the border. Researchers and environmental activists have been unable to access the area, which remains hazardous and volatile, with Israel continuing to bomb southern Lebanon almost daily despite a November 2024 ceasefire.
“This substance will not be benign. Any chemicals that are dropped into the environment with this scale and density won’t result in a positive outcome,” Mr Younes added.
In a previous statement, Unifil said its peacekeepers were forced to remain under cover and cancel more than a dozen activities after the Israeli army informed the force that it would be “carrying out an aerial activity dropping what it said was a non-toxic chemical substance over areas near the Blue Line”, preventing peacekeepers from resuming normal operations for more than nine hours.
The Israeli army’s “deliberate and planned actions” raised concerns about the effects of spraying an unidentified chemical on Lebanese agricultural land, the potential risk to nearby civilians, and its effect on the return of residents to their homes.
This was not the first time Israel has dropped unidentified chemical substances on to Lebanese land, the UN force added.
In Syria, civilians and environmental observers say they have observed Israeli flights dropping unidentified chemicals over villages and towns in the agriculture-dependent Quneitra countryside on several occasions – raising concerns over environmental damage and public health risks in the area.
Israel first began spraying the unidentified chemicals over agricultural land in several villages of Quneitra province two weeks ago, according to agricultural engineer and environmental activist Oday Afnaikher. Last week's incident was the third such overflight in two weeks.
"It's part of an overall campaign of harassment to make the area unlivable," Mr Afnaikher said.
He and another Syrian environmental expert, Mwaffak Chikhali, said the ministry of environment had taken samples in the areas where the chemicals were dropped in the Quneitra governorate and were in the process of testing them.
Israel has widened its occupation of Syrian territory since December 2024, when the regime of Bashar Al Assad was toppled and militant-turned-President Ahmad Al Shara took over. It now occupies what is meant to be a buffer zone and stages regular military incursions deeper into Syrian territory.
