Gunfire at Lebanese-Israeli border causes alert

Aug 1, 2011, 15:23 GMT

Beirut/Tel Aviv - Israeli and Lebanese troops exchanged fire on their joint border Monday, causing a state of high alert on both sides of the border.

United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) spokesman Neeraj Singh confirmed the clashes.

'At around 7:00 am this morning there was a brief exchange of fire between the Lebanese army and the Israeli army along the Blue Line in the general area of Wazzani,' he said.

'UNIFIL peacekeepers immediately responded to the location in order to contain the situation. The firing has since ceased and the situation in the area is quiet,' Singh said, adding that no casualties had been reported.

Each side accused the other of causing the incident.

The state-run Lebanese National News Agency said a southern Lebanese army post came under fire from Israeli forces, prompting Lebanese soldiers to fire back. According to a Lebanese security source Israeli soldiers advanced 50 meters into the Lebanese border area.

The clash lasted around 15 minutes. Shortly after the gunfire, both armies at the border went on full alert. Israel enhanced its positions with 10 personnel carriers, three tanks and 100 soldiers, the Lebanese source said.

The Shiite Islamist group Hezbollah issued a statement slamming 'the attack made by the Israeli enemy on Lebanese army units.'

It said the act was 'a reminder for the Lebanese people of the aggressive nature of the Zionist enemy and its greed for Lebanese territory.'

An Israeli army spokeswoman told the German Press-Agency dpa that a routine Israeli border patrol unit had been fired on from the Lebanese side. The Israeli patrol soldiers then returned fire, she said.

Israel had complained to UNIFIL, she said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a parliamentary committee Monday that Israel does not want 'an escalation on our border with Lebanon.'

In August 2010, two Lebanese soldiers, a Lebanese journalist and an Israeli officer were killed in a rare cross-border clash in Adaisseh, less than 10 kilometres west of Wazzani.

Gunfights have been extremely rare since the 2006 Second Lebanon War, when Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah movement engaged in 33 days of heavy combat.

In May, Palestinian refugees living in Lebanon and supporters marched toward the Israeli side of the border, prompting Israeli soldiers to open fire. Some 10 were killed.

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