The US is pressuring the Lebanese government and army to take steps to dismantle the outpost that Hezbollah established over two months ago in Israeli territory near the border between the countries, Barak Ravid reported on Walla on Thursday, citing four senior Israeli and American officials.
Last week I reported that a discussion in the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Security Committee revealed that a Hezbollah force invaded the sovereign territory of the State of Israel, in the Mount Dov sector, and established armed military posts there (Hezbollah Established 2 Military Posts Inside Israeli Territory).
Mount Dov, an extension of Mount Hermon, dominates a large area in northern Galilee, the Golan, and southern Lebanon. Since the IDF’s withdrawal from southern Lebanon in 2000 to the international border line, Mount Dov remained a bone of contention between Lebanon, which claims sovereignty over the area known as Shebaa Farms, and Israel, which has held on to it since capturing the Golan Heights from Syria in 1967, and later under the Golan Heights Act of 1981 that imposed Israeli sovereignty on the area.
Hezbollah operatives began setting up the outpost as early as April 8, when they placed a tent about 30 meters south of the international border line in an area that is under Israeli sovereignty but located north of the border fence with Lebanon. According to Ravid, citing a senior foreign ministry official, the IDF realized the tent was in Israeli territory only a few weeks later, when Hezbollah members erected a second tent and placed a water tank and a generator in the new outpost.
Both the US and Israel are concerned that Hezbollah’s provocation is the result of a miscalculation on its part, a failure to correctly assess the Israeli response. In reality, a senior Israeli official told Ravid, this incident has the potential for serious escalation.
Senior Israeli officials said that Israel asked the US to deliver a strong message to the Lebanese government and UNIFIL stressing how dangerous and fragile the situation is at the northern border. The message was delivered, and a senior Israeli official told Ravid: “Our goal is for the outpost not to be there. We prefer that Hezbollah evacuate its people by itself rather than that we bomb them. We made this clear to the US and the Americans made it clear to the Lebanese.”
So far, according to Al-Akhbar, which is affiliated with Hezbollah, the Shiite terrorist group refuses to evacuate the outpost and even told several international mediators that the outpost is on Lebanese land which is occupied by Israel.
Advantage Nasrallah. Ball is in IDF’s court. Stay tuned.
