Lebanese authorities say they have found a spy device belonging to the Israeli regime days after Israeli abductions of Lebanese nationals near the border with the occupied Palestinian territories.
The official National News Agency said Friday that the device was uncovered in the southern district of Marjayoun.
It said the army took the device to a military base after a patrol found it on the outskirts of the town of Tulin.
Israel has allegedly increased espionage and reconnaissance activities along the Lebanese border and in the occupied Lebanese territories of Shebaa Farms over the past weeks.
Lebanon's army said earlier this week that it raised the issue of Israel’s abduction of a Lebanese woman in the Shebaa region with United Nations peacekeeping mission in the area.
The woman, identified as Nohad Dali, was abducted by Israeli forces on April 28 and then taken to the occupied Palestinian territories. Israel claimed later that the woman had been released after a brief arrest.
The Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah also said Wednesday that a villager identified as Ismail Saab was seized by Israeli forces in Shebaa Farms.
Lebanon and Israel are technically at war as a result of Tel Aviv regime’s continued occupation of Shebaa Farms since 1967. Hezbollah has on several occasions sought to recapture the region while it continues to counter Israeli provocations in the area.
Israel’s near-daily violations of Lebanon’s territorial sovereignty via land, air and sea incursions, as documented by UN peacekeepers, have sparked fears of a fresh war between the two amid a festering escalation over Tel Aviv's efforts to seize Lebanese oil fields in the Mediterranean Sea.
Lebanon’s Prime Minister Sa’ad Hariri has called Israel as the greatest threat to Lebanon’s stability. “The only threat I see is Israel taking some kind of action against Lebanon, out of a miscalculation,” said Hariri in January.
Hezbollah inflicted heavy losses on the Israeli military during 2000 and 2006 wars. The group has warned Israel that it would be ready to respond to Tel Aviv’s provocations in neighboring Syria, where Hezbollah has been assisting the Syrian government in its fight on foreign-backed terror.