Houla

Houla is a Shia Muslim village in the Marjayoun District of southern Lebanon, situated roughly 10 km north of the Israeli border near the Blue Line. It lies within the strip of Lebanese territory that Israel occupied from 1982 to 2000, and which UN peacekeepers have monitored under Resolution 1701 since the 2006 war.

In the 2026 war, Israeli ground forces entered Houla alongside Kfar Kila, Kfar Shouba, Khiam, Yaroun, and other border villages as part of what the IDF described as a forward defence buffer zone. UNIFIL confirmed the IDF presence, marking the deepest Israeli advance into Lebanon since 2000 and revisiting towns held for eighteen years. The IDF 91st Galilee Division then pushed further east into the same district.

Houla embodies a recurring tension in southern Lebanese history: the same villages change hands in each conflict cycle, and each Israeli entry reactivates memories of the 1982 to 2000 occupation. Israel's declared intent to seize all territory south of the Litani would place Houla inside a permanent buffer, raising unresolved questions about whether Resolution 1701 can reassert itself once the fighting ends.