Lebanese Army sets up points in Kfar Chouba in sovereignty assertion
5 Min Read
The Lebanese Army sets up points in Kfar Chouba after the Israeli occupation forces bulldozed the area and violated Lebanon's sovereignty.
-
Lebanese troops and UN peacekeepers deploy along a fence at Lebanon's southern border with Syria in the disputed Kfar Chouba hills, June 9, 2023 (AP)
The Lebanese Army set up points in Kfar Chouba, southern Lebanon, near the borders in an affirmation of Lebanon's sovereignty and its territorial integrity over the land, an Al Mayadeen correspondent reported on Friday.
The correspondent reported that there was relative calm on the borders, adding that one Israeli military vehicle stood near the withdrawal line after the Israeli occupation forces stopped bulldozing the area, though there was no escalation of any sort.
The people of Kfar Chouba and Al-Arqoub took to praying near the withdrawal line, challenging the Israeli occupation soldiers who had been mobilized there on high alert. Meanwhile, the Israeli occupation forces remained in the area near their sites, an Al Mayadeen correspondent reported.
"The Lebanese people back the resistance as a pathway to liberation, not the United Nations," military affairs analyst Mohammad Abbas said. "The resistance is staying so long as there are Israeli aspirations [in Lebanon]."
"The people of Al-Arqoub and Kfar Chouba taught lessons in resistance, and this is their history," he underlined.
"If the people of Al-Arqoub and Kfar Chouba had not confronted the occupation's provocations, it would have been natural for the resistance to intervene directly," international relations writer and researcher Riad Eid said.
The golden triad of the people, the army, and the resistance is the wager to liberate the land, not the United Nations, Eid added.
Read more: Lebanese Resistance major player on international level: Iran's Raisi
"What the people of Kfar Chouba and Al-Arqoub in southern Lebanon did is a message to the occupation that the Lebanese will not allow any change in the status quo," political affairs expert Gerard Deeb said.
"The message sent to the occupation today from the people of Kfar Chouba and Lebanon as a whole is that it should not commit any blunders with Lebanon because it would pay a heavy price," he stressed.
The Lebanese border region with the occupied Syrian territories has been witnessing tensions since the morning, as an Al Mayadeen correspondent reported that Lebanese youths from the occupied Kfar Chouba hills removed barbed wire placed by the Israeli occupation and filled a tunnel that was dug in the area.
The occupation forces brought a Merkava tank and soldiers from the occupied site of Al-Samaqah to the area with the Lebanese army in the town of Kfar Chouba.
Al Mayadeen correspondent reported that Lebanese youths from the village of Kfar Chouba in southern Lebanon removed barbed wires placed by Israeli occupation forces and filled in a tunnel they had dug in the area.
Israeli occupation violations continued in Kfar Chouba on Friday as hundreds of soldiers from the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) flocked to the location of a sit-in staged by residents standing up against Israeli violations in the area.
On Thursday, Israeli occupation forces carried out bulldozing operations outside what is known as the "withdrawal line" in Kfar Chouba.
The official spokesperson of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) Andrea Tenenti announced that they were following closely the recent events in the border village (in the triangle border intersection between Lebanon, Syria, and Palestine), and called for employing coordination mechanisms to diffuse the tense situation to prevent any violations.
"UNIFIL peacekeepers are on the ground. They have been on the ground since the beginning to maintain the status quo of the cessation of hostilities, to establish calm, and to help ease tensions," said Tenenti.
"UNIFIL is in contact with the parties, and is striving to find solutions," calling on both sides to "exercise restraint and avoid actions that might lead to an escalation of tension along the Blue Line."
Al Mayadeen's correspondent in the area reported on Thursday that the Israeli occupation forces bulldozed past what is referred to as the "withdrawal line" in the occupied Kfar Chouba village in South Lebanon.
Earlier today, the Lebanese Army announced that it is deploying units on the southern Lebanon border after Israeli occupation forces attacked civilians from Kafr Chouba and Al-Arqoub villages with tear gas amid the heavy presence of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).
The civilians were protesting the bulldozing of their lands by the occupation forces that trespassed into Lebanese territory earlier this week and dug a trench and set up barbed wires in clear violation of sovereignty.
Israeli media warned of the rare "event [that] occurred on the border: a Lebanese army soldier aiming an RPG at an Israeli tank."
