After long years of keeping up with peaceful border control, Israel and Lebanon have engaged in new series of clashes. It was in 2006 when the two sides for the last time started 9and finished) their border clashes.
Despite Israel’s claim that Beirut initiated the conflict, the Lebanese military said it had shot tear gas at Israeli troops across the border in retaliation for smoke bombs that had been thrown at their soldiers.
Over the past few months, hostilities along the border have risen, with missiles fired towards Israel during outbursts of Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Besides, clashes between Hezbollah fighters and Israeli troops or their allies have intensified.
The occurrence took place near the Chebaa Farms and Kfar Chouba hills, parts of the Syrian Golan Heights. Tel Aviv annexed the region three decades earlier. The Heights were taken from Syria by Israel during 1967 war of the Middle East.
“Elements of the Israeli enemy violated the withdrawal line and fired smoke bombs at a Lebanese army patrol that was accompanying a bulldozer removing an earthen berm erected by the Israeli enemy north of the withdrawal line, the blue line, in the Bastra area,” the Military officials in Lebanon asserted in a statement.
Save for the policies of former American President, this illegal annex was not recognized internationally. Syria now seeks the restoration of the area. According to the Lebanese administration, the region is part of Lebanese soil.
According to the Israeli the armed forces, the fighting was begun by Lebanon. A statement from the Israeli military claimed that “a short while ago, Israeli soldiers spotted an engineering vehicle’s shovel crossing the Blue Line from Lebanon into Israeli territory in the area of Mount Dov. In response, soldiers used riot dispersal means.”
33-day Lebanon War
After Israel and Hezbollah forces of Lebanon engaged in a 33-day conflict back in 2006, the two sides’ border has been mostly peaceful. Even so, there have been conflicts.
Israel conducted sporadic airstrikes in southern Lebanon in April as a result of fighters firing approximately 30 rockets from Lebanon onto Israel. The assaults resulted in two casualties and damage to infrastructure.
A number of blasts reported in a contested location where the frontiers of Syria, Lebanon, and Israel intersect in July. The blasts prompted Israeli soldiers to bomb a border town in southern Lebanon.
The new clashes concerned the observers and international about the break-out of full-fetched confrontations. Both sides, however, have tried to contain the hostilities to avoid another bloody war in the region.
