Lebanese Man Killed, Another Wounded by Israeli Fire
A Lebanese man was killed and another was wounded when Israeli troops opened fire on them near the border, security officials said.
A Lebanese security official told Agence France Presse: “We believe that the two men were involved in a drug smuggling operation.”
A Lebanese military spokesman said that the two men were unarmed at the time of the incident and were on the Lebanese side of the border town of Ghajar.
But an Israeli army spokesman said that an Israeli patrol had come under fire from the Lebanese side of Ghajar.
The Israeli military said it was responding to fire apparently from drug smugglers on the Lebanese side. Such shootings have been rare since the 2006 war between Israel and Hizbullah.
The Israeli military said its soldiers came under fire in Ghajar, which is split between the two countries by a U.N.-demarcated line. The soldiers returned fire and identified a hit. There were no Israeli casualties.
Lebanese security officials said the two people were shot late Sunday along the Wazzani River in the southeastern corner of Lebanon across from Israeli positions in Ghajar.
They were taken to a hospital in Marjayoun, where officials confirmed they had received one body and another person who was wounded.
U.N. peacekeeping troops, deployed in south Lebanon, said there was a “shooting incident in the area of Ghajar” and that it has started an “immediate investigation to ascertain the facts, looking into initial allegations of smuggling.”
Yasmina Bouziane, spokeswoman for the 13,000-strong force, known as UNIFIL, said in a statement that a Lebanese man was evacuated by peacekeepers to a hospital in Marjayoun, where he was later declared dead. Another individual was evacuated by the Lebanese army, the statement said.
Bouziane said the UNIFIL commander, Maj. Gen. Claudio Graziano, “is in contact with senior officers on both sides, urging them to show maximum restraint.”
In November, Israeli troops in Ghajar opened fire, slightly injuring one of two men trying to infiltrate Israel. The injured man was carrying a bag of illicit drugs, the Israeli military said at the time.
There have been other incidents along the border since 2006 but most have been resolved quietly with UNIFIL”s intervention.
The most serious incident involved a shootout between Lebanese army troops and the Israeli army in February 2007 at Maroun al-Rass, an area of the border that was not clearly demarcated.
Ghajar, at the foot of Mount Hermon straddling the border between Lebanon and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, is perched on a cliff overlooking the precious Wazzani spring, which has been a source of continuous dispute between Israel and Lebanon.
It is inhabited mainly by Alawites, most of whom have obtained Israeli citizenship even though they consider themselves Syrian.
According to a U.N.-drawn “blue line” marking the border between Israel and Lebanon following the May 2000 withdrawal of Israeli troops, two-thirds of the village is on Lebanese soil, while the other third is part of the Golan which Israel seized from Syria in 1967 and unilaterally annexed in 1981