Buffer Zone Revisited

Today, Israel Defense Minister Amir Peretz stated that Israel will create a free-fire zone in Southern Lebanon, if an international force is not stationed there.

Our principal effort is to create a security zone that will be under the control of our forces, if there is no internastional force that enters the zone and deploys along the borders -- an international force with sufficient power to impose its will. We will direct fire against anyone who approaces that wide zone. Anyone who approaches it will know they are liable to be hit.

As noted here, the creation of this zone is the main reason that Israel is pushing out the Lebanese south of the Litani. So Peretz and the army are not likely to let them return. Certainly not in the absence of an international force, and not soon, even if such a force is deployed.

Israel Lebanon