Israel violating Lebanese border
Reageer (0)PressTV
Israeli plane violates Lebanon airspace
1-10-2010
An Israeli reconnaissance aircraft has entered Lebanon's airspace violating the country's sovereignty, a Lebanese military statement says.
According to the statement, the drone entered Lebanon's airspace from the southern border city of Naqoura on Thursday and hovered over the southern parts of the country for about 17 hours.
Another Israeli spy plane had entered the county's airspace early Wednesday over the southern border city of Naqoura, a Press TV correspondent reported on Friday.
Lebanon's military often reports airspace violations by Israeli aircraft but does not usually open fire on them.
The airspace violations, which are reported on an almost daily basis, contravene the United Nations Security Council's Resolution 1701, which ended the Israeli war on Lebanon in 2006.
According to evidence-backed statistics submitted to the UN by the Lebanese government, Israel has breached the provisions of the resolution on more than 7,000 occasions by violating Lebanon's airspace, territorial waters, and border.
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PressTV
Israel violates Lebanon airspace again
29-9-2010
An Israeli reconnaissance plane has violated Lebanon's airspace, flying over the northern and eastern parts of the country, the Lebanese Army says.
The army said in a statement that the Israeli spy aircraft entered the county's airspace early Wednesday over the southern border city of Naqoura.
The flights breach the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701, which obliges Israel to keep out of Lebanon following its 2006 war on the country, which left some 1,200 Lebanese dead.
Moreover, in another incident Israeli forces intruded into Lebanese territory last month, triggering a crossfire that killed three Lebanese soldiers, one Lebanese journalist and a senior Israeli officer.
According to evidence-backed statistics submitted to the UN by the Lebanese government, Israel has breached the provisions of the resolution on more than 7,000 occasions by violating Lebanon's airspace, territorial waters, and border.
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de Morgen, Belgie
Israëlische troepen beschieten Libanese soldaten
20-9-2010
Israëlische troepen hebben het vuur geopend op een Libanese legereenheid aan de Libanees-Israëlische grens nabij Doheira.
Daarbij vielen, volgens Libanese veiligheidsbronnen, geen slachtoffers. Maar door het verrassende optreden van de IDF werd de alarmfase voor het Libanese leger in het zuiden van het land verhoogd.
Begin augustus kwamen een Israëlische officier, twee Libanese soldaten en een Libanese reporter om bij een vuurgevecht in de buurt van het dorp Adissyeh in Zuid-Libanon. In juli 2006 mondde een grensincident uit in een Israëlisch luchtoffensief tegen Libanon. (dpa/eb)
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iloubnan.info
Israeli troops fire shots at Lebanon border: army
20-9-2010
AFP- BEIRUT - Israeli soldiers on Monday fired over the heads of Lebanese troops working on fortifications on the tense border between the two countries, a military spokesman told AFP.
"Lebanese soldiers were working at their positions in the Dhayra area when Israeli soldiers fired in the air above their heads," the spokesman said on condition of anonymity.
"The Lebanese army did not respond, and the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) intervened to contain the situation," he said, adding that "the situation has not yet been resolved."
"The Lebanese army was not targeted directly" by the Israelis, he said.
UNIFIL spokesman Neeraj Singh told AFP the peacekeepers had been informed by the Lebanese military of a shooting incident on the border.
"We are investigating. The situation on the ground is quiet and a UNIFIL patrol is in the area," Singh said.
Monday's incident comes more than a month after a deadly border clash in which four people were killed.
On August 3, three Lebanese nationals, two soldiers and a journalist, and an Israeli soldier were killed in a shootout sparked when Israeli troops tried to cut down a tree on the border, prompting Lebanese soldiers to open fire.
It was the most serious confrontation in the four years since the summer war of 2006, and saw both sides threatening retaliation if the shooting recurred.
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PressTV
Israel violates Lebanon airspace
A file photo of an Israeli air force unmanned plane
20-9-2010
An Israeli reconnaissance plane has violated the Lebanese airspace near the country's southern border, the Lebanese army says in a statement.
The statement said that the Israeli aircraft entered Lebanese airspace over the southern border city of Naqoura on Sunday, a Press TV correspondent reported on Monday.
The aircraft then flew over the eastern and southern areas before leaving, according to the correspondent.
Lebanon's military often reports violations of its airspace by Israeli aircraft.
The UN considers Israeli violations of Lebanese airspace as breaches of UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which brought an end to the Israeli offensive against Lebanon in 2006.
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PressTV
16-9-2010
The Lebanese Army says two unmanned Israeli aircrafts have conducted overflights in the south and east of Lebanon in violation of the country's airspace.
According to the Lebanese army's Wednesday statement, the first unmanned aircraft entered over Lebanon's southern border early in the evening, while a second similar plane violated the country's airspace from the eastern frontier later at night, a Press TV correspondent reported.
The second plane remained in the country's airspace for several hours.
The frequent Israeli violations of Lebanese airspace come in breach of the United Nations Security Council's Resolution 1701, which ended the Israeli war on Lebanon in 2006.
The Resolution requires Israel to respect Lebanese sovereignty.
Beirut complained to the UN in 2009 about the Israeli activity over its southern territory.
GHN/HRF
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the Daily Star
Israel boosts troop training close to Blue Line
10-9-2010
BEIRUT: Israel is boosting its military training close to the Blue Line in anticipation of a fresh conflict with Lebanon’s Hizbullah, Israeli public radio said Thursday.
Israeli Army Head of Operations Unit Brigadier General Sami Turjeman said continuing growth of recruits and equipment would stand it in good stead should a new war arise.
“Hizbullah constitutes a military challenge to the [Army],” he said and added that live ammunition was being used in Israeli Army training drills for the first time in order to properly simulate war with the party.
Israel has been conducting underground drills in its northern territory for the past few days, according to media reports, in the anticipation that another altercation with Hizbullah could take place partially underground.
Last month, two Lebanese soldiers and a journalist, as well as a senior Israeli officer, were killed when the two armies exchanged fire in the village of Adaysseh, close to the Blue Line separating Lebanon and Israel.
Israel fought a devastating war with Hizbullah in July-August 2006, which killed more than 1,200 Lebanese, mostly civilian, and 160 Israelis, mostly soldiers. Talk of a fresh conflict has been percolating ever since, in spite of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon stating that no new war is looming. – The Daily Star
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al Manar
Israeli Enemy Violates Lebanon Airspace Again
4-9-2010
Israeli spy planes have again violated Lebanon's sovereignty, conducting overflights amid increasing tension between the two sides.
According to an army statement, an Israeli reconnaissance plane on Saturday entered southern Lebanon, loitering around for some time.
The statement said that a similar plane had flown into the airspace over the southern border town of Naqoura the day before.
The overflights contravene the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701, which obliges Israel to keep out of Lebanon following its 2006 war on the country, which left some 1,200 Lebanese martyred.
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PressTV
Israeli plane violates Lebanon airspace
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A file photo of an Israeli air force unmanned plane
27-8-2010
An Israeli reconnaissance plane has violated Lebanon's airspace in breach of the country's sovereignty, according to the Lebanese army.
The army said in a statement on Thursday that the aircraft entered the Lebanese airspace over the southern border town of Naqoura, a Press TV correspondent reported.
The plane then flew over eastern Lebanon and the capital Beirut, the statement added.
Meanwhile, another Israeli plane had violated the airspace a few hours earlier on Thursday.
Lebanon's military often reports airspace violations by Israeli aircraft but does not usually open fire on them.
The United Nations considers Israeli violations of Lebanese airspace as breaches of UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which brought an end to the Israeli offensive against Lebanon in 2006.
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Global Research
Israeli intelligence infiltrated throughout Lebanese government
by Wayne Madsen
Israel Penetrating Lebanese Institutions
25-8-2010
WMR has learned from its Lebanese intelligence sources that the Lebanese government is coming to realize that Israeli intelligence penetration of all political groups in the country is worse than originally believed.
Israel’s Mossad, once content on penetrating the Christian and Druze parties in the country, has now thoroughly infiltrated the top echelons of Sunni and Shi’a parties, as well. Recently, Lebanon charged retired General Fayez Karam, a senior member of retired General Michel Aoun’s Free Patriotic Movement, which is allied with Hezbollah, with spying for Mossad.
Among the political parties penetrated by Israeli intelligence is the Future Movement of Prime Minister Saad Hariri, the son of the former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, who was assassinated by a car bomb in Beirut in 2005. The UN Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) is expected very soon to charge Lebanon’s Hezbollah with the assassination. However, Hezbollah leader Hasan Nasrallah recently announced the group had video evidence from Israeli drones that showed the Israeli Defense Force was tracking Hariri before his assassination.
The STL’s chief prosecutor, Daniel Bellemare of Canada, requested the evidence from Hezbollah. However, WMR has learned that Bellemare is suspected by Lebanese intelligence of having close previous contacts with agents of both the CIA and Mossad. WMR previously reported that Bellemare is suspected to have allowed and introduced into evidence against Hezbollah in the Hariri assassination, doctored cell phone intercepts pointing the “smoking gun” at Hezbollah. It is feared that Bellemare might give Hezbollah’s evidence to Mossad for the Israelis to determine the source of the leak of classified videos.
Mossad is also reported to be grooming a successor to the Lebanese Shi’a political leader Nabih Berri, currently the speaker of the Lebanese parliament. The Mossad operation is being actively supported behind the scenes by Saudi Arabia, a country that is fast becoming one of Israel’s most “open secret” allies in the Middle East.
According to WMR’s sources in Lebanon, one network that Israel and the United States can rely on to support the UN after the expected indictment of Hezbollah for Hariri’s assassination is a Sunni network in the Bekaa Valley of Lebanon. It includes a member of the same family as Ziad al-Jarrah, one of the alleged United flight 93 hijackers on September 11, 2001.
Lebanese intelligence has linked the Ziad al-Jarrah, who hailed from the Bekaa Valley, to a Saudi-supported Salafist network that includes “Al-Qaeda” associates that will be used to target Shi’as throughout Lebanon in the wake of the Bellemare charges against Hezbollah. Lebanese intelligence discovered that members of this same Mossad-supported Salafist/Al Qaeda network also targeted top Shi’a leaders in Iraq. WMR has learned that Ziad al-Jarrah was used by the Mossad, the CIA, and Saudi intelligence as a “patsy” in the 9/11 conspiracy, just as similar “patsies” are being used in Iraq and elsewhere to help keep the myth of “Al Qaeda” and Osama bin Laden alive.
The same Salafist/Al Qaeda network in Lebanon, while still in an embryonic stage, was used by Mossad and the CIA to spy on Palestinian groups in Lebanon during the 1980s and 90s, as well as on Syria during its occupation of Lebanon.
The Israeli espionage network also extends to Syria. Lebanese sources report that former Syrian Vice President Abdel Halim Khaddam, who accused Syrian President Bashar al Assad of ordering Rafik Harir’s assassination, is tactically backed by Israel and the United States. Khaddam, who heads the exiled National Salvation Front (NSF), is seeking to overthrow Assad. The NSF not only receives support from Israeli and U.S. intelligence but also from the French and German intelligence. The NSF maintains offices in Brussels, Berlin, Paris, and Washington, DC and it is suspected of working behind the scenes with Bellemare to bring chargss against Hezbollah for the Hariri assassination. However, previous attempts to have Assad and pro-Syrian Lebanese generals indicted for the assassination fell through due to lack of any credible evidence.
Wayne Madsen is a Washington, DC-based investigative journalist, author and syndicated columnist. He has written for several renowned papers and blogs.
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Electronic Intifada
Israel's multi-front war on Lebanese resistance
By Hicham Safieddine
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A weapon is positioned at a UN base in southern Lebanon near the border with Israel. (Matthew Cassel)
18-8-2010
The international coverage of border clashes between Lebanese and Israeli military forces earlier this month may have suggested the confrontation was a mere squabble over cutting a tree that went awry in a "trigger-happy" and "conflict-prone" region.
Less than a week later, one of several recent speeches by Hizballah's Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah managed to get brief global media coverage. He presented visual and audio material suggesting that Israel may have assassinated former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri in February 2005.
However, both incidents were much more than a routine tug-of-war between two long-time foes. They were part of an ongoing war between Israel and resistance forces along Israel's northern frontier that continued even after the July 2006 Israeli offensive against Lebanon. The second phase of this war is being fought by other means and on more clandestine fronts. From spy networks that reached the highest echelons of Lebanon's security and political establishment, to war by proxy conducted via UN forces in southern Lebanon, to international blackmail through the UN-sanctioned tribunal into Hariri's death, the battle between Israel and Hizballah has taken on new dimensions. These dimensions have wide-ranging implications on the future of the struggle against Zionism and the success or failure of US regional imperial aims.
The 3 August border clash itself that left two Lebanese soldiers, one Israeli officer and a Lebanese journalist dead underscored several realities of the current political and military climate. Despite the incessant war-mongering by Israel over the past few months, the killing of one of its high-ranking officers -- a colonel -- did not translate into a massive offensive the same way Hizballah's capturing of two Israeli soldiers did in July 2006. This clearly undermines arguments blaming Hizballah for starting the July 2006 war. Wars are rarely improvisational affairs. Specific incidents are almost always pretexts rather than triggers of war. Israel was ready and eager to go to war in 2006. In spite of its rhetoric, this time Israel was not.
Another feature of this latest clash that instigated a circus of political posturing in Lebanon, Israel and the United States was the fact that the army, rather than Hizballah, was the party engaging the Israelis. In all three countries, the issue of arming the Lebanese military was a topic for discussion. In Beirut, Hizballah's opponents in the Lebanese government hailed the clash as living proof of the ability of the Lebanese army to defend the country and called for a campaign to better equip and arm the military. In a silly bid to start the campaign, the temperamental minister of defense, Elias al-Murr, and his father, a wealthy veteran politician, deposited half a million dollars into a newly established bank account for such a purpose.
Meanwhile, the Israeli government called on Washington to stop arming the Lebanese military. Unsurprisingly, several US congressmen complied and sought a review of US military aid to Lebanon. Meanwhile, Iran's top supreme guide aid Ali Akbar Vilayati was in Beirut offering his country's willingness to fill in the gap.
The fact remains that cutting US aid to the Lebanese army harms Israeli interests rather than serves them. Indeed, the 3 August incident was the exception rather than the rule of relations between Israel and the Lebanese army. Since Lebanon's formal independence in 1943, US military aid has been significant only when the Lebanese army was an actual or potential ally to Israeli strategic aims and actions, from 1981 to 1984 at the height of the Israeli occupation of Lebanon and immediately after the July 2006 war. Even then, the amounts were meager -- $138 million in the 1980s and $220 in 2007 -- and excluded any weapons necessary to defend Lebanese territory. Rather, the funds boosted the army's internal security readiness that can be used against resistance forces or for the destruction of the Palestinian refugee camps. A cut in this aid will only hurt petty beneficiaries in the army ranks and diminish the army's ability to control radical elements inside Lebanon rather than face Israel.
The perception that the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) colludes with Israel was reinforced by the 3 August incident. In the days that followed the tree incident, the Israelis quietly -- and without any Lebanese response or much media reporting -- cut, and with the consent and cooperation of the UN forces stationed there, not one but three trees. Over the past few months relations between UNIFIL and local villagers have deteriorated precipitously. Currently under French command, UNIFIL has clashed with villagers on several occasions as they conducted more intrusive and uncoordinated missions within these villages to enforce their mandate of ensuring that there is no "non-state armed presence" south of the Litani River. While this is indeed part of their mandate as defined by UN Security Council resolution 1701 that outlines the terms of ceasefire following the July 2006 war, UNIFIL's rules of engagement also stipulated that they were to coordinate their moves with the Lebanese government, something they have increasingly avoided or complained about.
In effect, the heavy presence of the Lebanese army and that of UNIFIL in southern Lebanon are two sides of the same coin: a last-resort strategy by Israel to drain and weaken Hizballah in every possible indirect way after the most direct one -- outright total war -- failed to crush the movement in 2006. The heavier the non-Hizballah military presence, the more eyes and ears and bodies there are to disrupt the "sea" of people where the "fish" of the resistance survive and grow. Hizballah's official position has remained supportive and encouraging of the Lebanese army presence and lukewarmly tolerant of the international one.
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The real threat to its power, Hizballah's cadres declare, lies elsewhere. First, in the open spy war whose extent and impact continues to unravel daily in Lebanon. Second, in the ramifications of decisions by the international Hariri tribunal expected to implicate high-ranking members of Hizballah's military wing in the 2005 assassination.
On 3 August 2010 three Lebanese and one Israeli were killed when a firefight erupted after Israel cut down trees at the border with Lebanon. (Reuters)
By any standards of espionage, the extent of the spy war and its unraveling is of staggering proportions. Dozens of alleged and convicted Israeli spies have been exposed and arrested in Lebanon in the past couple of years. International media would have been buzzing with stories about them had they been less than a handful but accused of spying for Syria or Iran or any of the usual "Axis of Evil" suspects. The reach and role of these spies is tremendous according to local media reports. They have managed to infiltrate the communications networks and the security apparatus of Lebanon at the highest levels. Both fields are essential to safeguarding the operations of the resistance. These fields are also the gateway to conducting clandestine operations in Lebanon such as assassinations or tampering with evidence pointing to perpetrators of such acts. It is this reality that links the spy war to the international tribunal that has prompted a public and diplomatic offensive by Hizballah lately in the form of a series of appearances by its leader Nasrallah.
The first volley of this offensive was largely focused on discrediting the international tribunal by showing the unreliability of any evidence it presented based on phone communications (now shown to be controlled and manipulated by spies) or false testimonies -- now clearly the work of conspirators keen to manipulate public opinion to extract political prices from Syria or Hizballah. The credibility of these witnesses that formed the backbone of earlier reports by the tribunal pointing fingers at Syria is baseless. Key witnesses accusing Syria and its allies in the Lebanese security services have since then recanted their testimonies or were shown to be mercenaries receiving fat sums of money from political parties aligned with Prime Minister Saad Hariri, son of the assassinated former prime minister. Despite the exposure of these witnesses and the gravity of the consequences of their testimonies, the tribunal has refused to investigate who was behind concocting these false testimonials.
By focusing on the tribunal's inaction in this matter, Nasrallah was attacking local rivals, namely the Hariri camp, which provided the political and possibly material cover for the witnesses. If Hizballah is going to be put on the hot seat by the tribunal, Nasrallah will put his opponents on a hotter seat domestically. If the false testimony file was about the tribunal's questionable past, Nasrallah's second volley was about the reliability of its future actions. Nasrallah presented video recordings showing Israeli spy planes tracking Hariri's whereabouts and routes of transportation prior to the assassination. The findings were the result of Hizballah's success in intercepting, in real-time, aerial streams of surveillance footage being broadcast from Israeli spy planes roaming Lebanese skies back to headquarters inside Israel. Nasrallah was clear that the footage was not a smoking gun but enough grounds for the tribunal or any investigative body to subpoena Israeli officials and investigate the possibility that Israel was behind Hariri's killing. Daniel Bellemare, the tribunal's chief prosecutor, filed a formal request with the Lebanese government to obtain all the material in Hizballah's possession relating to this footage. Although Hizballah agreed to the request, it explicitly stated that it was only doing so in compliance with the Lebanese request and will only hand over the material to the Lebanese government. But the latter has so far acted as a mailman in this case, and the tribunal could easily serve as a conduit of all this material to the Israelis without committing to investigating them.
The tribunal's report implicating Hizballah members in the Hariri assassination is expected in the fall. Hizballah's pre-emptive attack on its credibility and its local cheerleaders has led to Syrian and Saudi efforts to seek a compromise. The Saudis might try to petition Washington so that the report is delayed until the spring. But anything short of a complete restructuring of the tribunal to eliminate the possibility of international manipulation or to neutralize its effects locally (which requires bringing down the current Lebanese "unity" government if it doesn't continue to equivocate on the matter), may only put things on hold for a year or so. Without a complete takeover of the investigation by Lebanese authorities, as Hizballah has called for but so far not insisted on, the tribunal will remain a sleeping cell of international pressure activated at the opportune time to justify whatever larger aims, including new wars, the US administration and Israel have in store for the Middle East. By then, regional conditions -- at least in the eyes of Washington and its Israeli and Arab allies -- may seem ripe for another round of sowing "constructive chaos" from Tehran to Tel Aviv, and there will be no shortage of trees -- of different roots and fruits -- to cut.
Hicham Safieddine is a Toronto-based researcher and journalist.
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Israel jets, drone enter Lebanon airspace
Israeli fighter planes
21-8-2010
Four Israeli warplanes and one spy drone have illegally flown over Lebanon's airspace in the third day of provocative violations of the country's sovereignty.
On Friday, the Israeli aircraft entered the southern border town of Naqoura, the Lebanese Army said in a statement.
The statement added that the aircraft flew over several areas before heading out.
Several similar overflights have been reported since Wednesday, when 10 Israeli planes were spotted violating the country's airspace.
Israel carries out such flights on an almost daily basis, claiming they are surveillance missions.
These flights are in breach of the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701, which obliges Israel to keep out of Lebanon following its 2006 war on the country, which left some 1,200 Lebanese dead.
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PressTV
Israeli jets violate Lebanon's airspace
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20-8-2010
Israeli warplanes have once again violated Lebanon's airspace, conducting several illegal overflights in breach of the country's sovereignty.
According to a Press TV correspondent, the Israeli planes flying at low altitude entered Lebanon's airspace from the south on Friday.
The Lebanese army had earlier reported that two Israeli reconnaissance planes entered the country on Thursday at 7:15 a.m. (0415 GMT) and headed out nearly twenty hours later.
On Wednesday, eight Israeli aircraft illegally entered Lebanon's airspace from the south while two other jets violated the country's airspace from the sea and roamed over the southern town of Baalbek.
Lebanon's military often reports airspace violations by Israeli aircraft but does not usually open fire on them.
The airspace violations, which are reported on an almost daily basis, contravene the United Nations Security Council's Resolution 1701, which ended the Israeli war on Lebanon in 2006.
According to evidence-backed statistics submitted to the UN by the Lebanese government, Israel has breached the provisions of the resolution on more than 7,000 occasions by violating Lebanon's airspace, territorial waters, and border.
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PressTV
18-8-2010
Israeli warplanes have once again violated Lebanon's airspace, conducting several unwarranted flights over the country, the Lebanese army says.
An army statement on Wednesday said that eight Israeli aircraft illegally entered Lebanon's airspace from the south at 10:30 a.m. local time (0730 GMT) and flew over Lebanon.
Within five minutes, two other Israeli jets violated the country's airspace from the sea and roamed over Baalbek.
The statement also said that an Israeli warplane entered the country at 10:40 a.m. (0740 GMT) and headed out more than twenty minutes later.
Lebanon's military often reports airspace violations by Israeli aircraft but does not usually open fire on them.
The airspace violations, which are reported on an almost daily basis, contravene the United Nations Security Council's Resolution 1701, which ended the Israeli war on Lebanon in 2006.
According to evidence-backed statistics submitted to the UN by the Lebanese government, Israel has breached the provisions of the resolution on more than 7,000 occasions by violating Lebanon's airspace, territorial waters, and border.
HM/HGH/MMN
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