How Lebanon responded to Israeli map claiming parts of its south

When an official Israeli Foreign Ministry account published a map that appeared to redraw Lebanon’s southern border, officials in Beirut did not respond publicly. Rather, they quickly moved behind the scenes.

The map, posted on the Israeli ministry’s Arabic and English-language accounts on X, appeared to incorporate parts of southern Lebanon into Israel.

It was eventually deleted, but not before setting off concern among Lebanese officials that what Israel would later describe as merely "an artificial intelligence error" could point to territorial ambitions at a time when Israeli troops continue to occupy Lebanese land.

According to information obtained by The New Arab, President Joseph Aoun instructed his team to investigate the post soon after it appeared and to take steps to have it removed.

Aoun considered the map a serious infringement on Lebanon’s sovereignty and its internationally recognised borders, and according to the sources, his team sent reports and geographic coordinates documenting Lebanon’s boundaries.

The matter was then taken up in Washington.

Lebanon’s ambassador to the United States, Nada Hamadeh Moawad, raised the issue with the US State Department, which in turn contacted Israeli officials seeking an explanation.

The Israeli response was that an alleged "error" had occurred while the graphic was being produced using artificial intelligence.

The post was subsequently removed.

But in Beirut, its deletion did little to settle the matter.

According to the sources, Lebanese officials remain concerned that the image could reflect broader Israeli ambitions over southern Lebanon, particularly as Israel continues military operations in the country and has resisted Lebanese demands for a full withdrawal from occupied territory.

The issue is now expected to be raised in the next round of negotiations between Lebanon and Israel, should they proceed.

For Beirut, the episode is also likely to reinforce its insistence that Israel seeks delays over its withdrawal, new pilot areas, or any halt to its military operations in Lebanon.

Lebanon is also weighing whether to continue in the current process without changes, including suspending talks altogether or make another round conditional on Israel taking tangible steps to fulfil its commitments.

The seventh round of talks, held over three days in Rome last week, ended without progress on two of the central disputes between the sides: the establishment of further pilot zones and continued Israeli military operations.

A deeper fear

The disputed image was ostensibly about something entirely different.

It appeared in an infographic presenting figures attributed to the UN children's agency UNICEF on acute child malnutrition across the Middle East, with countries shaded in different colours alongside statistical data.

But Lebanon's borders were altered. Parts of its south were visually absorbed into the territory marked as Israel.

That detail drew particular attention because of what is already happening on the ground.

Israel continues to occupy Lebanese territory while carrying out strikes and other military attacks in the south, despite ongoing negotiations intended in part to establish a path towards withdrawal.

The combination of the map and those developments prompted fears among some Lebanese politicians that the image should not be treated simply as a badly generated graphic.

Hezbollah warned on Sunday that the map provided "confirmation beyond doubt" of Israel's ambitions over Lebanon's territory, wealth and resources.

The group said that Israel's participation in direct negotiations with the Lebanese authorities was an attempt to buy time and "impose new realities on the ground".

It also sharply criticised the Lebanese government's approach to the negotiations, saying it was pursuing concessions without securing reciprocal Israeli steps.

"The Lebanese authorities bear full responsibility for insisting on continuing down the path of concessions and offering free gifts to the enemy," Hezbollah said in a statement.

The group called for a comprehensive reassessment of the negotiations and urged the government and Higher Defence Council to take immediate action, including filing an urgent complaint with the UN Security Council.

It said Lebanese political forces should recognise Israeli ambitions were not limited to the country's south, but extended to Lebanon as a whole.

'Not an incidental detail'

MP Melhem Khalaf also rejected the suggestion that the map could simply be brushed aside as merely a technical mistake.

In a post on X, Khalaf noted that the image was also published by the Israeli Foreign Ministry's verified Arabic-language account, giving its depiction of Lebanon particular political significance.

Publishing a map that showed Lebanon "missing parts of its south", with those areas visually incorporated into Israel, was "not an incidental detail nor a technical error that can be ignored", he said.

He highlighted Israel's continued occupation of Lebanese territory, the demolition of homes, uprooting of olive trees, destruction of water wells and other property, and restrictions preventing some residents from returning to their villages.

The publication of the map alongside those actions, he said, had raised "serious concerns about an attempt to change the features of the land and impose an occupation reality by force".

"These acts are not security measures," Khalaf said. "They are serious violations of international humanitarian law and a direct attack on Lebanon's sovereignty and the rights of its people."

He called on the Lebanese government to formally document the episode and immediately raise it with the United Nations and other international bodies, seeking an explicit acknowledgement that the map was invalid and carried no legal or sovereign effect.

Khalaf also called on the United Nations and UNIFIL, the peacekeeping force deployed in southern Lebanon, to protect civilians and their property and prevent the entrenchment of an occupation on Lebanese territory.