UNIFIL probes abduction of two Lebanese by Israel
The UN military force charged with securing peace in South Lebanon has launched an investigation into the seizure of two Lebanese civilians by the Israeli army near the border between the two countries. Two middle-aged brothers, Tarraf and Hassan Tarraf, were captured by Israeli soldiers as they worked in an olive grove near the village of Blida on Friday, and were released the following day after the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) intervened.
UNIFIL spokesperson Yasmina Bouziane told The Daily Star on Sunday that the incident was being looked into by the force. "An investigation into the circumstances of this incident has been launched, and is still ongoing," she said. "We are in contact with both the Lebanese Army and the … [Israeli military], and we urge all parties to exercise restraint."
She said she did not know how long the investigation would take, or whether all of its details would be made public.
Both men insist that they were on the Lebanese side of the heavily guarded border when Israeli soldiers unleashed dogs on them. They say they were tied up and taken to Israel, where they were beaten and interrogated about whether they were working for Hizbullah. Israel says that the men had crossed the border into Israel”s territory, and were arrested as a result.
If Israeli troops are found to have crossed the border to kidnap the two men, it would represent a serious violation of Resolution 1701, which was adopted by the UN Security Council in order to end the full-scale Israeli military assault on Lebanon launched in July 2006. The two men were recovering in a Tyre hospital from suspected dog bites over the weekend. Their capture and apparent abuse at the hands of Israeli authorities has sparked condemnation from across the political spectrum in Lebanon.
In a strongly worded statement, President Michel Sleiman said on Saturday that the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) were also looking into the circumstances surrounding the incident. "Lebanon will send a protest letter to the United Nations as soon as the army reaches a final conclusion on the exact location where they were kidnapped," the statement said.
Prime Minister Fouad Siniora also slammed the Israeli action, describing it as a "violation," and saying that Israel does not "cooperate with UNIFIL to define the Blue Line [the UN designated frontier between the two countries]."
Meanwhile, Hizbullah demanded to know how the UN Security Council would respond to what it described as a "flagrant violation of UN Resolution 1701."
The Blue Line is the UN designated frontier between Israel and Lebanon adopted in 2000, when Israel ended its occupation of most of the South. Neither country has accepted the Blue Line as the official border, but both have agreed to respect it as a functional frontier.
Despite this, Israel continues to violate Security Council resolutions by crossing the Blue Line, most notably in the border town of Ghajar, where Israeli forces openly patrol in Lebanese territory. The UN has been trying to broker a deal with the Israelis to persuade them to withdraw from Ghajar, but despite rumors that an agreement is imminent, they have so far been unsuccessful.
Picture: An injured Lebanese man lies in a hospital bed in the southern city of Sur on Saturday after being released from detention by Israeli soldiers. (AFP)