Israeli Army Fires in Air, Burns Minefield as Lebanese Rally on Border

Israeli troops on Thursday fired in the air and shouted warnings in a bid to disperse a group of young Lebanese men who were hoisting flags on the border fence in celebration of the Resistance and Liberation Day, which Lebanon marks on May 25, a media report said.

“After the young men refused to leave, enemy troops set fire to a field behind the border fence, which detonated a number of landmines in the area, before the troops opened fire anew,” al-Jadeed television reported.

Israel withdrew its forces from southern Lebanon in 2000, after a 22-year occupation that faced armed resistance spearheaded by Hizbullah.

The Israeli army had reached the capital Beirut in a 1982 invasion aimed at ousting the Palestine Liberation Organization from Lebanon. The invading forces eventually withdrew to a so-called security buffer zone in the South after facing guerrilla attacks in the capital and its suburbs.