Lebanon to file UN complaint against Israel over Ghajar annexation

The Foreign Ministry on Tuesday asked Lebanon’s permanent mission to the United Nations to file a complaint to the U.N. secretary general and U.N. Security Council over Israel’s “annexation of the northern, Lebanese part of the Ghajar village.”

“It represents a blatant and dangerous violation on top of Israel’s daily and continuous violations of Lebanese sovereignty and of Resolution 1701 (2006),” the Ministry said.

It also called for “condemning this premeditated breach of Lebanese sovereignty” and for Israel’s “immediate and unconditional withdrawal from all occupied Lebanese territories.”

Israel captured Ghajar from Syria in the 1967 war when it took the Golan Heights. After the Israeli military ended an 18-year occupation of southern Lebanon in 2000, U.N. surveyors split Ghajar between Lebanon and the Israeli-controlled Golan, but Israel reoccupied the northern half during the 34-day war with Hezbollah in 2006.

In recent weeks, Lebanese officials said that Israel has built a wall around the Lebanese part of Ghajar warning that Israel might annex it to the Israeli part of the town.

Hezbollah last week issued a harsh statement calling Israel's works around the Lebanese part of Ghajar as "dangerous" adding that the wall is separating the town "from its natural and historic surroundings in Lebanon."

Almost at the same time that the Hezbollah statement on Ghajar was issued, an anti-tank missile was fired from Lebanon near Ghajar — with some fragments landing in Lebanon and others inside Israeli territory. Israel fired shells on the outskirts of the nearby village of Kfarshouba.

Israel and Hezbollah fought a monthlong war in Lebanon in 2006. Late last month, Hezbollah said it shot down an Israel drone flying over a village in southern Lebanon.

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