UNIFIL, Israeli officers meet to discuss killing
Officers from Israel and the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) held talks on Friday to discuss last week”s border incident in which one Lebanese man was shot dead and another one wounded by Israeli gunfire, the state-run National News Agency (NNA) said.
It said the meeting took place on the eastern outskirts of the border town of Ghajar, near where the shooting took place on Sunday.
The NNA said the officers discussed the tension which grew between Israeli forces and UNIFIL after the shooting.
It said the two sides also discussed Israeli forces” harassment of UNIFIL troops around Ghajar, as well as attacks against Lebanese citizens.
The Israeli Army said that their troops had come under fire from the Lebanese side of Ghajar as they carried out a patrol on Sunday.
Israeli security sources said the soldiers suffered no casualties and imposed a curfew on the Israeli-controlled side of the village after opening fire on the Lebanese men.
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 River. Ghajar has been a source of continuous disputes between Israel and Lebanon.
According to a UN-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.
On Thursday, UNIFIL spokeswoman Yasmina Bouzianne told reporters in Naqoura that UNIFIL has heightened security precautions over the past few days following the incident.
“UNIFIL and the Lebanese Armed Forces have doubled their patrols in the area of Ghajar so as to avoid similar incidents and in compliance with UN Resolution 1701,” Bouzianne said.
“The main objective of the UNIFIL”s mission is to contain or prevent tensions from escalating and protect civilians,” she added.
Created in 1978, UNIFIL was boosted to a 13,000-strong international force following the 34-day war with Israel in July and August 2006. It is tasked with monitoring the Lebanon-Israel border and assisting the Lebanese Army.
According to Lebanese security sources, Israeli troops on Wednesday intercepted Spanish peacekeepers operating as part of the UNIFIL while they were building a fence on the Lebanese side of Ghajar and the road leading to it.
The Israelis also prevented the Spanish soldiers from undertaking the same measure in another location in the village and threatened to open fire on them.
In other UNIFIL developments, the Qatari contingent started clearing their camp in the southern village of Tiri on Friday.
Qatar said on Thursday it has withdrawn its unit of more than 200 United Nations peacekeepers from South Lebanon, and said it did not intend to send more. The contingent from Qatar is the only Arab country operating as part of UNIFIL.
Bouziane said on Thursday that the departure of the Qataris had been planned.
“It was part of the plan. This is a planned departure. There is nothing behind it. They arrived in October 2007 and they were not intending to stay a long time. They have given a lot – mainly on the humanitarian level,” she added.
Picture: Israeli soldiers patrol al-Ghajar village as seen from the Lebanese border February 4, 2008. A Lebanese man was killed on Sunday in south Lebanon when Israeli forces opened fire from northern Israel, security sources in Lebanon said. REUTERS/ Karamallah Daher (LEBANON)