News / Lebanon

Hezbollah warns against Israel road building in southern Lebanon

Friday, 19 August 2016 5:16 AM [ Last Update: Friday, 19 August 2016 7:55 AM ]

Israeli forces are seen retrieving a bulldozer that has crashed in the occupied Shebaa Farms, August, 17, 2016.

The Lebanese resistance movement of Hezbollah has warned against the ongoing construction of a road by Israel in Israeli-occupied Lebanese territory.

The regime is building the two-kilometer-long road in the Shebaa Farms in southern Lebanon, which it occupied alongside vast expanses of other Arab territories in 1967.

“It’s another crime to add to the long list of enemy crimes against Lebanon,” Hezbollah said in a statement on Thursday, referring to the construction work.

The work “exposes the limitless Zionist greed for Lebanese land and wealth,” the Lebanese resistance movement further said in its statement.

The movement also called on the Lebanese government to “conduct its normal role in defending Lebanon’s sovereignty and take the necessary measures to confront” the Israeli move.

Israel has launched two wars on Lebanon — one in 2000 and another 2006. About 1,200 Lebanese, most of them civilians, lost their lives during the 33-day war in the summer of 2006. Hezbollah is credited with driving Israeli troops out of southern Lebanon.

On Thursday, army chief Major General Jean Kahwagi said Lebanese military forces were committed to defending the country against Israel.

“The military will confront Israeli aggression targeting Lebanon with all the available capabilities, thanks to the efforts of the units deployed [in the South],” he said.

Lebanese Army Commander Major General Jean Kahwaji

He said that the “army’s main mission to defend the south against the Israeli enemy complete its other missions to confront terrorism along the eastern border and maintain domestic security.”

In August 2014, the al-Qaeda-linked Nusra Front, which has now renamed itself, and Daesh terrorist groups overran the eastern Lebanese town of Arsal, killing a number of Lebanese forces. They took 30 soldiers hostage, most of whom have been released.

Since then, the army and Hezbollah have been defending Lebanon on the eastern frontier, preventing terrorism in neighboring Syria from spilling over into the country.

Kahwagi also urged the upholding by Israel of UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which brokered a ceasefire in the 2006 war, calling on Israel to respect Lebanon’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.

The Israeli military has, however, repeatedly violated the resolution, including by incessant overflights into Lebanese airspace using unmanned aerial vehicles.

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