ISRAEL: UN troops patrol border area as Israeli troops continue their withdrawal from south Lebanon

Record ID: 397197

  • Title: ISRAEL: UN troops patrol border area as Israeli troops continue their withdrawal from south Lebanon
  • Date: 18th August 2006
  • Summary: (BN05) ISRAEL'S NORTHERN BORDER WITH LEBANON, ISRAEL (AUGUST 18, 2006) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF DOZENS OF TROOPS RETURNING FROM LEBANON INTO ISRAEL TANK ROLLING TOWARDS ISRAEL ARMY BULLDOZERS LEAVING LEBANON CLOSE OF SOLDIER WITH PAINTED FACE SOLDIERS CARRYING GEAR RETURNING BACK TO ISRAEL MORE OF TROOPS WALKING
  • Embargoed: 2nd September 2006 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Israel
  • Country: Israel
  • Topics: International Relations,Defence / Military
  • Reuters ID: LVAABV0KWOUFU7BAVK3KHX7HKQ00
  • Story Text: United Nations peacekeepers patrolled the Israeli-Lebanese border on Friday (August 18) as Israel continued to withdraw its forces from southern Lebanon under a UN-brokered cease-fire.
    The United Nations, which is mandated to add 13,000 troops to the 2,000-strong UNIFIL (United Nations Interim Forces in Lebanon) force already in south Lebanon, hopes to field an advance force of 3,500 extra soldiers in two weeks, despite France's refusal to provide a large contingent.
    Trying to consolidate the five-day-old truce, the United Nations said it had received substantial offers of more troops for Lebanon, but was disappointed that France was not ready to form the backbone of the expanded peacekeeping force.
    Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev welcomed the international force and said it is the first step towards creating a "Hizbollah-free zone" in south Lebanon.
    "... All those countries that are sending forces to south Lebanon, France included, we welcome that and we say it is very important because the resolution is a good resolution but it is important to transform this resolution into a reality. We don't need another piece of paper that is gaining dust in the archive," Regev said, referring to U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701.
    Meanwhile Israeli troops continued to withdraw its forces from south Lebanon.
    Wearing disguise helmets and camouflage make-up, the troops, backed by bulldozers and armoured vehicles, crossed the border into Israel in the area of the northern town of Metula.
    Lebanese army troops prepared to move on Friday to the edge of the Israeli-occupied Shebaa Farms, the main flashpoint for fighting between Israel and Hizbollah guerrillas before the war that a U.N. truce has halted.
    Security sources said the Lebanese troops would deploy in the village of Shebaa, near the tiny enclave claimed by Lebanon.
    Israel occupied it when it seized the Golan Heights from Syria in the 1967 war. The United Nations says it belongs to Syria.
    Hizbollah has repeatedly attacked Israeli troops in the remote 25-sq-km (10-sq-mile) area in the past six years, saying Israel's presence there meant its withdrawal from south Lebanon in 2000 after a 22-year occupation was incomplete.
    The Lebanese army began deploying south of the Litani River, about 20 km (13 miles) from the border with Israel, on Thursday to take over, with the help of an existing U.N. force known as UNIFIL, a region it has not fully controlled for decades.
    A senior security source said about 4,500 Lebanese troops were already south of the Litani and more units were joining them on Friday as the force builds up to an eventual 15,000.
    Hizbollah fighters have melted away as the Lebanese army arrives, but they have not left the south or given up the rocket launchers they used to bombard Israel during the conflict.
    At least 1,110 people in Lebanon and 157 Israelis were killed in the conflict that erupted after Hizbollah captured two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid on July 12.
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