June 9 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The protests in recent days on the border between Lebanon and Israel due to the harassment by Israeli forces of a Lebanese farmer have ended up degenerating this Friday into clashes that have led to the deployment of the Lebanese Army and the United Nations mission in the country, the FINUL, to contain the situation.
The mobilizations began on Wednesday in support of the farmer Ismail Naser, who became a national hero after facing bare-chested against an Israeli bulldozer that allegedly had crossed the border through the town of Kfarchouba, denounced by the Lebanese Army as occupied territory.
According to the Al Manar TV channel, affiliated with the Lebanese Shiite militia party Hezbollah, several of the residents of Kfarchouba have begun to throw stones at the Israeli military, who in turn have responded with tear gas to a mobilization that included Kasem’s presence. Hachem, number two in another major Lebanese Shiite party, the Amal movement.
Given the virulence of the confrontations, the Lebanese and UNIFIL soldiers have “deployed en masse” to calm things down, as explained by the spokesman for the UN force, Andrea Tenenti, to ‘L’Orient le Jour’. The blue helmets carried messages with a warning for the Israeli forces, “Forbidden to cross the blue line”, in relation to the separation line drawn almost a quarter of a century ago by the UN.
The UNIFIL commander, Spanish General Aroldo Lázaro Sáenz, has begun a process of “coordination with both parties to try to reduce tension and calls on the Lebanese and Israelis to avoid what would be an unprecedented escalation” in the area.
In fact, General Lázaro Sáenz chaired a regular tripartite meeting on Thursday with senior officers of the Lebanese Armed Forces and the Israeli Army at a UN position in Ras al Naqoura in view of “the series of worrying clashes in recent months along the blue line”, highlighting the one that occurred on April 6, when Israel denounced a rocket attack launched by guerrillas from the Palestinian movement Hamas, with the approval of Hezbollah, which resulted in the wounding of three Israelis.