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The Lead Israel's imposition of a 'security buffer zone' in southern Lebanon that extends into Mediterranean waters has alarmed experts who say it's a bid to occupy Lebanon's maritime territory, which has potential oil and gas reserves. The Buffer Zone A map of the 'buffer zone', which is demarcated by what Israel calls the 'Yellow Line', was announced by Avichay Adraee, the Israeli army's Arabic-language spokesperson, on April 19, days after the United States brokered a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon. The buffer zone stretches roughly 10km (6 miles) north of the Lebanon-Israel border and represents about 6 percent of Lebanese territory. The Data Analysis Israel's new demarcation line into Lebanon's exclusive economic zone (EEZ) in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea absorbs two blocks that are part of the Qana gasfield that border Israeli waters: Block 9 and Block 8, where gas exploration is due to begin. In January, weeks before the US and Israel launched the war on Iran, France's TotalEnergies, Italy's Eni and QatarEnergy signed an offshore exploration permit with the Lebanese government for Block 8. The Impact Analysis Experts told Al Jazeera that the new 'defence zone', or 'buffer zone', not only violates the ceasefire but also absorbs Lebanon's Qana gas project, whose exploration rights were explicitly guaranteed to Lebanon under a 2022 US-brokered maritime border agreement with Israel. Aref Fakhry, a maritime lawyer and associate professor at the World Maritime University in Malmö, Sweden, called Israel's attempt to expand its borders into Lebanon's EEZ an 'outright land grab'. The Prediction Analysts said any Israeli maritime occupation would have devastating impacts on the economy of southern Lebanon, which is largely dependent on its soil and sea, similarly to Gaza, which has been under an Israeli sea, land, and air blockade since 2007. Experts suggested that Lebanon could seek justice to hold Israel accountable to the letter of the 2022 maritime boundary agreement, invoke the UN Convention on the Territorial Sea and the Contiguous Zone of 1958, or ask the UN Security Council to intervene.