Isreal and Lebanon border clash

[Enigma]

Border skirmish.

ADEISSEH, Lebanon – Lebanese and Israeli troops exchanged fire on the border Tuesday in the most serious clashes since a fierce war four years ago, killing four people including two Lebanese soldiers and an Israeli army officer.

The violence apparently erupted over a move by Israeli soldiers to cut down a tree along the fence dividing the two countries, a sign of the level of tensions at the border where Israel fought a war in 2006 with the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.

The U.N. urged "maximum restraint" and said it was working with both sides to restore calm. After an initial clash of about five minutes, intermittent shelling and gunfire went on for several hours until the fighting stopped by mid-afternoon, witnesses said.

A Lebanese army officer said the clash started when Israeli troops tried to remove a tree from the Lebanese side of the border.

An Associated Press photo shows an Israeli standing on a crane reaching over the fence that Israel erected to separate the two countries. The fence, however, does not match the U.N.-drawn border in all places, and the Israeli military said in a statement that the tree was in Israeli territory.

"It was over the fence but still within Israeli territory," the military spokesman's office said. He said the tree cutting was coordinated with the U.N. peacekeeping force in south Lebanon, UNIFIL.

Ronith Daher, 32, a Lebanese journalist who was at the scene, said she saw a UNIFIL peacekeeper ask Israel not to allow the Israeli soldier to cross the fence and warned them the Lebanese troops would open fire. The Israelis proceeded, however, and Lebanese soldiers fired into the air, Daher said. She said the Israelis fired back directly at the Lebanese soldiers.

The Israeli military's northern commander, Maj. Gen. Gadi Eizenkot, however, accused Lebanese forces of shooting toward forces inside Israeli territory without any provocation." He said that while soldiers were removing bushes by the fence, Lebanese military snipers shot two officers who were more than 300 meters (yards) away from the fence.

The military announced that a 45-year-old battalion commander with the rank of lieutenant colonel was killed and a captain was critically wounded.

Eizenkot said Israel responded with infantry, tanks and artillery fire, and later sent helicopters and artillery fire at a Lebanese army base and command center. "These are the first casualties in the past four years (in the border area). We view this very seriously and that is why we responded so severely," he told reporters.

Nonetheless, he described the incident as "isolated." He did not elaborate.

UNIFIL spokesman Andrea Tenenti told Israel Radio that the circumstances were still unclear.

Asked whether Israel crossed into Lebanon, Tenenti said: "This is what we are trying to verify, to get all the facts together and try to basically get the evidence of all the events."

Residents near the Fatima Gate, a one-time border crossing with Israel, briefly blocked a road as peacekeepers tried to pass, shouting: "Are you here to protect us or are you here to run away?"

Many in the area view the international force with mistrust, and there have been skirmishes between residents and the peacekeepers in the past.

Lebanese President Michel Suleiman denounced the fighting and urged the army commander to "confront any Israeli aggression whatever the sacrifices."

A Lebanese officer said one of the Israeli shells hit a house in the Lebanese border town of Adeisseh. One civilian was wounded in the shelling, he said. A security official also said a Lebanese journalist working for the daily Al-Akhbar newspaper, Assaf Abu Rahhal, was killed when an Israeli shell landed next to him in Adeisseh.

The Lebanese officials all spoke on condition of anonymity under military guidelines.

The border has been relatively quiet since the summer 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war that left 1,200 Lebanese and about 160 Israelis dead. Tuesday's fighting did not appear to involve Hezbollah fighters.

After the 2006 war, the U.N. deployed 12,000-member peacekeeping force, known as UNIFIL, in the area.

Tensions along the border have risen in recent months. Israel claims Hezbollah guerrillas have significantly expanded and improved their arsenal of rockets since 2006. Among other things, Israeli officials have accused Syria and Iran of supplying Hezbollah with Scud missiles capable of hitting anywhere in Israel, a claim Hezbollah has refused to confirm or deny.

Adding to the friction, more than 70 people in Lebanon have been arrested since last year on suspicion of collaborating with Israel.

Suleiman said the shelling was a violation of the U.N. resolution that ended fighting between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006, saying Israeli troops had crossed the U.N.-drawn Blue Line boundary separating the two countries and fired on a Lebanese army checkpoint in Adeisseh.

The Shiite Hezbollah guerrilla movement was not involved in Tuesday's clash. Hezbollah officials were not immediately available for comment. The group's leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, was scheduled to address supporters via satellite at a huge rally south of Beirut later Tuesday marking Hezbollah's "divine victory" over Israel in the 2006 war.

___

Associated Press Writers Zeina Karam and Elizabeth A. Kennedy in Beirut and Josef Federman in Jerusalem contributed to this report.

Four dead over a tree and some bushes? Really?

[Zixinus]

This is when history shows us how absurd people can be. Of course it wasn't just about some damn bushes and trees, it was decades old hatred and prejuice and whatever just waiting for the tiniest opportunity to brake out.

[Kanastrous]

What is it with trees and border skirmishes? Reminds of that North Korea-South Korea dustup over...cutting down a tree along the border.

[Serafina]

What is it with trees and border skirmishes? Reminds of that North Korea-South Korea dustup over...cutting down a tree along the border.

I think that the trees are cut down because you could use them to cross a border, especially if it has a fence.
Other than that, it is a way to state "this is MY territory, so i have the right to cut down trees".

But really, it just shows that both parties are really thick and stupid if they can't work out an issue like that.

[Kanastrous]

I think you got it right with the territory-marking angle. Dogs and bears pee and claw bark, we sling metal and high explosives at one another...

[Ace Pace]

What is it with trees and border skirmishes? Reminds of that North Korea-South Korea dustup over...cutting down a tree along the border.

I think that the trees are cut down because you could use them to cross a border, especially if it has a fence.
Other than that, it is a way to state "this is MY territory, so i have the right to cut down trees".

But really, it just shows that both parties are really thick and stupid if they can't work out an issue like that.

Or that any and all ability to talk by the countries to talk to each other has evaporated over the last twenty years. As I understand it, Israel does not believe the Lebanese government is an actual sovereign entity(due to Hezbullah influence) and the Lebanese government refuses to recognize Israel. Working from that approach, it's no wonder both sides end up fighting over the border.

[Gil Hamilton]

Wait, wait, wait... wait... my DAD had that EXACT dispute with our next door neighbor! We too had a tree that was on a property line and we too disputed if the property line was six inches one way or the other. There was an argument when the other guy tried to enter our property to have it cut down.

Things have gone south with disputes that should normally involve a Small Claims Court at worst involve armies shooting at each other.

[Thanas]

It is nothing new. Humans have been using far flimsier excuses to wage war for centuries.

[Admiral Valdemar]

Fighting in the Middle-East? YAWN.

Let me know when the next war starts. I imagine within a week. I'll still yawn, but least I'll know to avoid reading the news about it for a time.

[eyl]

What is it with trees and border skirmishes? Reminds of that North Korea-South Korea dustup over...cutting down a tree along the border.

I think that the trees are cut down because you could use them to cross a border, especially if it has a fence.

Besides that, they cut down line-of-sight (allowing someone to get right next to the fence) and I heard mention somewhere (I'm not sure it's true, I haven't seen it confirmed anywhere) that the trees in question were actually pressing on the fence, which could presumably cause it to collapse.

Besides that, since the Lebanese Army knew about the IDF operation in advance, there's been some speculation this was planned in advance (according to the linked article the theory is a single officer was behind it, but there are have been other possibilities mentioned).

EDIT - one thing I forgot to mention is that since the fence is electronic (that is, it gives an alert when touched) vegetation needs to be cleared around it to prevent false alarms from wind-blown branches touching it and the like.

[Kanastrous]

According to the UN the tree was on Israeli turf, after all.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38551967/ns ... tn_africa/

For whatever that's worth.

[The Grim Squeaker]

Lebanon: We fired first at IDF unit near Israel border
Israel submits official UN complaint over fatal border clash; UNIFIL official says IDF soldiers did not cross Lebanon border.
By Haaretz Service and Barak Ravid Tags: Israel news Lebanon IDF

The Lebanese Army was first to open fire in the recent fatal border clash with Israel Defense Forces soldiers, a Lebanese source told the Lebanese newspaper A-Nahar on Wednesday.

An IDF reserve battalion commander was killed on Tuesday as Lebanese and Israeli troops exchanged fire on the border in the most serious clashes since a fierce war four years ago, with Lebanon saying at least three of its soldiers and a journalist were killed in the resulting shelling.

According to the IDF, fighting began after Israeli troops began what Israel said was a scheduled vegetation clearing activity on Israel's side of the international borderline. In response to the activity, which Israel claimed Lebanon was notified of, Lebanese snipers opened deliberate fire at the IDF observation post several hundred meters into Israel, killing Lt. Col. Dov Harari and wounding company commander Ezra Lakia.

Speaking with A-Nahar Wednesday, a Lebanese military spokesman admitted to IDF claims that the Lebanese fired first, adding however that it was their right "to defend Lebanon's sovereignty."

On Tuesday, Israel submitted an official letter of complaint to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon over the clash on the Lebanese border, saying the attacks by the Lebanon army "threaten stability, peace, and security in our region."

"In response to this grave incident that constitutes a blatant violation of UN Security Council resolution 1701, Israel exercised its right of self-defense, responding with the appropriate measures on LAF positions in the area," the letter submitted by Israel's UN envoy Daniel Carmon.

The letter stated that Israel held "the Government of Lebanon responsible for these attacks and all actions conducted from Lebanese territory," adding that Israel called "upon the international community to exert its influence and to take the necessary measures with the Lebanese authorities to ensure that such provocative violations will not be repeated."

"In order to fully address this matter, I wish to inform you that this identical letter has been sent to H.E. Mr. Vitaly I. Churkin, President of the United Nations Security Council, to be circulated as an official document of the Security Council," the letter added.

Earlier Wednesday, a chief UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) official said IDF soldiers did not cross the border with Lebanon before the deadly clash between Israeli and Lebanese forces, adding that the UN force had been dealing with complaints of Lebanese provocations on a daily basis.

The IDF stressed following the fatal exchange that its vegetation clearing works near the border had not only taken place within Israeli territory, but on Israel's side of the fence.

Milos Strugar, UNIFIL's senior political adviser said that the IDF had "informed UNIFIL that it was going to conduct maintenance works" on the border, adding that while the Israeli unit had been "on the northern side of the border fence," it was nonetheless "south of the international borderline."

However, the UNIFIL official added that the information he had was "preliminary," adding that he will look into the evidence "more thoroughly" later in the day.
"The situation became tense right away, with the Lebanon army also being there," Strugar said, adding that UNIFIL forces had tried "to calm the situation and allow the IDF to work."

Asserting the IDF's claim that it had informed the Lebanese side of the planned border works, Strugar said that UNIFIL had received a message from the IDF "regarding these works, and we had passed that on to the Lebanese army."

"We deal with complaints on provocations of Lebanese soldiers against IDF units on a daily basis," Strugar told Army Radio, adding incidents occur "almost every day, there's a lot of tension round the border, but what happened is the worst incident since 2006."

Also Wednesday, a UNIFIL spokesman said that the organization had established that "the trees being cut by the Israeli army are located south of the Blue Line on the Israeli side."

While both Israel and Lebanon had voiced reservations regarding the location of the international border, or the Blue Line, the UNIFIL statement asserted that "both Lebanon and Israel confirmed to the UN Secretary-General that, notwithstanding their reservations, identifying the Line was solely the responsibility of the United Nations and that they will respect the Line as identified."

"The UN position is that the Blue Line must be respected in its entirety by all parties," the statement by Deputy Spokesperson Andrea Tenent said.