Click to see full-size image. By Ali Shoeib.
Lebanese and Israeli troops fired tear gas at each other near the separation line during an unusual confrontation on September 23.
In a statement, the Lebanese army said that it fired tear gas at Israeli forces in response to smoke bombs fired at its troops.
“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 army said in a statement.
Nevertheless, the Israeli military alleged that it was the Lebanese side that started the confrontation along the separation line.
“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,” a statement from the Israeli military said. “In response, [Israeli] soldiers used riot dispersal means.”
“The vehicle returned to Lebanese territory,” the military added.
Ali Shoeib, a report of the Hezbollah-affiliated Al-Manar TV, shared footage from the confrontation on the X website, previously known as Twitter.
The area where the confrontation took place in the Shebaa Farms and the Kfar Chouba hills, which were captured by Israel from Syria during the 1967 Middle East war and are part of Syria’s Golan Heights that Israel annexed in 1981.
Syria demands the return of the territory. However, the Lebanese government maintains that the area belongs to Lebanon and should return to its control.
The confrontation was the latest in a series of incidents that escalated tensions along the separation line between Israel and Lebanon. The tensions began early in June when Hezbollah fighters set up two tents several dozen meters into the Shebaa Farms after accusing Israel of attempting to expand its occupation.
