Syria lauds Lebanese Army, people on in face of ‘Israel’

June 10, 2023

Source: Al Mayadeen

The Israeli settlement of Metulla is seen from the Lebanese village of Kfar Kila, in southeast Lebanon, Wednesday, May 20, 2020 (AP)

By Al Mayadeen English 

An Israeli official describes the confrontations in Kfar Chouba as Hezbollah taking advantage of internal strife to challenge “Israel”.

In an interview with Channel 12, Yuli Edelstein, chief of the Foreign Affairs and Security Committee of the Israeli occupation, described the confrontation as Hezbollah’s taking advantage of intra-zionist strife to challenge “Israel”.  

“What happened today on the Lebanese border is a challenge to Israel and a provocation that it does not want to be dragged into,” Yuli Edelstein told Channel 12.

“This is exactly what I warned about previously, which is that our enemies, Hezbollah and the likes of it, could misinterpret the problems we have, and decide that this is the right time to challenge us.”

“They feel that there are cracks between us so that they can at least unite, and this is exactly what is happening,” he added. 

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.

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. 

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