Hizbullah Vows To Retain Ghajar Amid Rising Lebanese-Israeli Border Tensions
Hizbullah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, said Wednesday that Lebanon would not cede the southern village of Ghajar to Israel. Nasrallah’s pronouncement came as he commemorated the 17th anniversary of the 2006 Lebanon-Israel 34-day war, a conflict that concluded with a UN-brokered cease-fire.
The village, originally within Syrian territory, was captured by Israel during the 1967 Middle East war. Following Israel’s withdrawal from Lebanon in 2000, the UN demarcated the Blue Line, effectively placing the northern part of Ghajar within Lebanese territory and the southern part within Israeli-controlled Golan Heights. However, after the 2006 Lebanon War, Israel reoccupied the northern part, citing security concerns over the Iran-backed group, Hizbullah.
This holiday season, give to:
Truth and understanding
The Media Line's intrepid correspondents are in Israel, Gaza, Lebanon, Syria and Pakistan providing first-person reporting.
They all said they cover it.
We see it.
We report with just one agenda: the truth.
Nasrallah described the liberation of Ghajar as the shared duty of “the Lebanese people, state and resistance.” He said Israel had completed a wall around the northern portion of Ghajar, transforming it into a tourist site.
“We should operate as we did over the maritime border to take back our occupied land in Ghajar,” he said, hinting about the potential use of drones to take back the village. He countered Israeli claims over Hizbullah-erected tents by claiming they stood on Lebanese land.
These declarations follow recent border tension escalations over the disputed area. Earlier on Wednesday, an Israeli drone targeted Hizbullah members in Yarine, a village in Tyre district, resulting in three injuries.
This latest standoff traces back to the unresolved issues from the 2006 war between the Iran-backed Hizbullah and Israel, signaling the fragility of the cease-fire and the potential for renewed conflict.
