Report: Israel Withdraws from Ghajar End of January
Israel will withdraw from the northern part of the border village of Ghajar at the end of January 2010 following a deal between UNIFIL and Israel, well-informed U.S. sources told An Nahar newspaper.
The sources said that Israeli troops will pull out from the Lebanese side of the village in accordance with U.N. Security Council resolution 1701 based on a UNIFIL plan. Israel occupied Ghajar during its 2006 war with Hizbullah.
An Nahar said that Lebanon has informed the U.N. about its acceptance of the plan and although Israel hasn”t officially notified UNIFIL about its consent, it told the mission”s commander Maj. Gen. Claudio Graziano and U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon Michael Williams that it is mulling to pull out its forces from Ghajar.
According to the plan, the U.N. would deploy 12 peacekeepers in addition to a Lebanese officer and three other Lebanese soldiers from the village in the northern part of Ghajar on condition that the Israeli pullout does not affect the daily lives of the village”s residents.
The condition stipulates that the residents move between the northern and southern sides of the village without any difficulties.
The U.S. sources told An Nahar that Israel would provide Ghajar residents with water and electricity, a move that Lebanon has agreed on because its priority is an Israeli pullout from the village.
Ghajar lies at the foot of Mount Hermon and straddles the Lebanese-Syrian border. It is inhabited by Alawites, most of whom have obtained Israeli citizenship even though they consider themselves Syrian.
The village is an extension of the Syrian Golan Heights plateau, which Israel occupied during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war and then annexed in 1981.
According to the U.N.-drawn Blue Line marking the border between Israel and Lebanon following a May 2000 Israeli troop pullout, one-third of the village is on Lebanese soil, while the other two thirds are part of occupied Syrian territory.