Israel was on own side of border during fire, says UN

AS ISRAEL yesterday resumed uprooting and pruning trees along the volatile border with Lebanon, a UN spokesman declared that Israeli troops had been operating in their own territory on Tuesday when Lebanese soldiers opened fire. Israel responded with machine gun and artillery fire.

Two Lebanese soldiers, a local journalist and an Israeli reserve officer were killed in the exchange, the worst since the end of Israel’s 2006 war on Lebanon.

Lieut Col Naresh Bhatt, military spokesman of the UN peace- keeping force, observed, however, that both sides had “some reservations concerning the Blue Line”, the UN-demarcated 2000 line of withdrawal of Israeli forces from Lebanon.

At the contested location, the fence separating the sides is a short distance south of the Blue Line, creating a pocket of territory between the fence and the Blue Line. Israel, which claims this strip, used a crane to reach over the fence to cut trees said to be blocking surveillance. This outraged Lebanese villagers and troops who believed Israeli forces were intruding. In spite of the UN finding, the country’s information minister, Tareq Mitri, stated, “While [Lebanon] has respected the Blue Line . . . it has always affirmed that [it] is not the international border and there are areas south of the Blue Line that are Lebanese territory . . . The area where the tree was to be cut yesterday . . . is Lebanese territory.”

Lieut Col Bhatt stated, “The UN position is that the Blue Line must be respected in its entirety by all parties.” He said the UN was investigating the incident and monitoring the situation. He indicated UN troops were on the spot when the incident took place.

The UN force’s chief political adviser, Milos Strugar, said Israel had informed the force it was going to conduct maintenance work and this message had been transmitted to the Lebanese army.

Tuesday’s clash came after months of rising tension between Lebanon and Israel, which has been claiming that Syria and Iran are arming the Shia Hizbullah movement. While it did not intervene in the exchange, secretary general Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said his forces would “not stand idly by” if Israel again attacked the Lebanese army. He said Hizbullah fighters had been ready to fight alongside the army but he ordered them “to hold back. We informed the [Lebanese] president that we [would] take no action.”

Since Hizbullah ministers are in the current cabinet, Israel has threatened to demolish Lebanese government facilities during any new conflict. Sayyed Nasrallah also accused Israel of being behind the 2005 assassination of former premier Rafik Hariri and said he would provide proof at a news conference next Monday.

Meanwhile, Lebanese security detained Fayez Karam, a retired general and senior member of the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM), headed by Michel Aoun, on suspicion of spying for Israel.

The FPM is largely a Maronite Catholic party allied to Hizbullah. Over 70 people have been arrested since April 2009 for collaborating with Israel.