Hezbollah condemns Israel's wall in Ghajar, calls on state to take action

Hezbollah issued a statement Thursday about Israel's wall in the village of al-Ghajar. The village is split into Lebanese and Israeli sides along a border, known as the blue line, that was demarcated after Israel's withdrawal from southern Lebanon in 2000.

"It is not just a routine breach of what the occupation forces are accustomed to from time to time," the statement said.

Hezbollah called on the Lebanese state to take action to "prevent the consolidation of this occupation" by Israel of al-Ghajar, home to around 3,000 people.

It denounced Israel for the erection of "a barbed wire fence and the construction of a concrete wall around the entire locality".

As part of the U.N. Security Council resolution that ended the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah, Israel needs to withdraw from the northern part of al-Ghajar, which has not happened. U.N. peacekeeping forces in Lebanon for years have called on Israel to end its building work in northern al-Ghajar and to withdraw its troops.

The so-called Blue Line cuts through al-Ghajar, formally placing its northern part in Lebanon and its southern part in the Israeli-occupied and annexed Golan Heights.

The residents of al-Ghajar have been granted Israeli citizenship rights, and Israel has recently opened the town, long a military zone, to tourism.

Hezbollah charged that Israel had now "completely imposed their force on the Lebanese, occupied parts of the town and submitted it to its administration, in parallel with the opening of the town to tourists".

Lebanese soldiers in Mays al-Jabal, another border town, obstructed an Israeli bulldozer accompanied by Israeli soldiers Wednesday that reached over the technical fence to remove plants and trees from the Lebanese side. The tense standoff did not result in any clashes.

The situations also has been heated along Shebaa Farms and around Kfarshouba. Israel captured those areas from Syria during the 1967 Mideast war, and they are part of Syria's Golan Heights that Israel annexed in 1981. The Lebanese government says the area belongs to Lebanon.

In early June, Israel filed a complaint to the U.N. claiming that Hezbollah had set up tents several dozen meters inside the disputed territory. Israeli media had since reported that Hezbollah evacuated one of the two tents, but the group did not confirm the action.

Later that month, Israeli soldiers fired tear gas to disperse scores of Lebanese protesters who pelted the troops with stones along the border near the disputed territory.

Hezbollah also took down an Israeli drone last month. The group in the past has claimed responsibility for downing Israeli drones, and Israel's military has said its forces have shot down Hezbollah drones.

Israel considers Hezbollah its most serious immediate threat, estimating it has some 150,000 rockets and missiles aimed at Israel.