UNIFIL completes construction of Ghajar border fence
Engineers with the Spanish contingent of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), with logistical support from their Polish counterparts, completed the construction of a border fence in the border village of Ghajar in tandem with Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) soldiers on Sunday.
UNIFIL and LAF soldiers laid the fence to prevent any breaches of the Blue Line, which separates Lebanon and Israel, two states that are legally in a state of war. The Blue Line division places one-third of Ghajar in Lebanese territory and the other two-thirds on the Israeli side of the border, contributing to a tenuous situation in and around the border village. The 325-meter-long border fence, which stretches out near the Wazzani River across from a similar 400-meter Israeli fence, took three days to complete.
The construction of the new barrier comes on the heels of nationwide military and civilian exercises in Israel and amid renewed global attention regarding the Lebanon-Israel border areas.
According to UNIFIL spokeswoman Yasmine Bouziane, the decision to construct the barrier came during an April 2 meeting between UNIFIL commander Major General Claudio Graziano and Lebanese and Israeli army officials. A reported rise in drug trafficking during the past few months, as well as more political and security related concerns, contributed to the decision to erect the fence.
There have been a few incidents along the border since the end of the 2006 summer war, including the killing of an alleged Lebanese drug trafficker and the wounding of another by Israeli soldiers in February.
The Lebanon-Israel border was initially delineated in the Lebanese-Israeli General Armistice Agreement of 1949, which reaffirmed the border drawn between Lebanon and Palestine by British and French mandatory authorities in 1923.
Israel occupied parts of South Lebanon in 1978, expanding its so-called “security zone” after a major invasion in 1982 and remaining until withdrawing from most of the region in 2000. The UN-brokered cease-fire that ended the month-long 2006 war also beefed up the UNIFIL presence that continues to monitor the Israel-Lebanon border.