Three weeks before the renewal of the enhanced United Nations peacekeeping forces in southern Lebanon (UNIFIL), the Lebanese Army organized a tour for representatives of member states of the Security Council accredited in Lebanon along the Blue Line. The delegation included representatives from Russia, the United States, France, Switzerland, Japan, China, Brazil, and the UK.
The tour, accompanied by approximately seventy journalists and reporters from various media outlets, covered the area of the railway tunnel in Naqoura, Ras Naqoura, and reached the Ghajar area, especially the northern occupied part of the town. The tour was coordinated by the Lebanese government commissioner to UNIFIL, Brigadier General Munir Shihadeh, who concurrently chairs the Lebanese delegation to the tripartite meeting between Lebanon and Israel under UNIFIL supervision.
At the Naqoura tunnel, the international delegation received a detailed explanation from a Lebanese Army officer about the scale of continuous Israeli violations at point B1, from which Israel has not withdrawn, as well as regarding 13 other points of contention for Lebanon. This coincided with an Israeli naval breach of Lebanese waters by two military vessels in the presence of the delegation members.
The delegation also received similar explanations in the Ras Naqoura area, where a breach is noted, and then proceeded to Ghajar by helicopter. Brigadier General Shihadeh stated that "the tour comes just weeks before the renewal of UNIFIL, to inform representatives of the countries on the ground about the scale of Israeli violations." He emphasized that the Blue Line is a line of withdrawal, not a demarcation or a border establishment, and Lebanon wants to display its southern borders with the occupied Palestinian territories. He pointed out that "Lebanon does not recognize the Blue Line that exists within the Israeli-occupied Shebaa Farms and established by the United Nations."
Brigadier General Shihadeh also mentioned that Lebanon "has sent a request to the United Nations to remove the term demarcation or border establishment and replace it with the term: Lebanon wants to display its borders with the occupied Palestinian territories and therefore with the Israeli enemy." He confirmed in this context that there is no longer anything called Ghajar, but rather it has now become known as the outskirts of the town of Mari.
