This week, the IDF announced completion of a nine-meter-tall concrete wall along portions of the Jewish state’s border with Lebanon, which is designed to prevent infiltration and protect against Hezbollah.
By: World Israel News Staff
As the Hezbollah terror group continues to stockpile rockets in Lebanon and amass forces under the auspices of its benefactor, Iran, Israel publicly unveiled this week a new security structure to protect against threats from the north.
While Israel maintains that the concrete barrier, which measures nine meters tall and stretches across 11 kilometers of the border, complies with relevant laws and reflects the boundaries established by the international armistice line, Lebanon has protested the wall, claiming the structure violates its sovereignty.
Dismissing Lebanese complaints lodged with with UN peacekeeping force UNIFIL, which acts as a go-between for the nations, IDF Maj. Tomer Gilad classified Lebanon’s protests as baseless, reported Times of Israel.
With the border wall constructed south of the UN-recognized border between Israel and Lebanon, also known as the “Blue Line,” the IDF maintains that it raises no questions with regard to disputed territories.
The barrier is a portion of the 13 kilometer structure approved by the IDF, which is designed to protect the 22 Israeli villages in the area that have been identified as targets of terror operations by a Hezbollah troop called the Radwan Unit, which was formed to attack civilians within Israel and cause mass casualties.
In addition to serving as a physical barrier, the wall also provides a structure for IDF surveillance cameras to monitor snipers and infiltrators even before they mount an attack.
According to Israel, Hezbollah routinely flouts United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the Second Lebanon War in 2006 and was adopted to remove the terror group from the area south of the Litani River.
Israel maintains that one of Hezbollah’s latest tactics to violate Resolution 1701 is via operatives of a group called “Green Without Borders,” which Israel says is actually front for Hezbollah.
The United Nations denies that “Green Without Borders” operatives are in breach of Resolution 1701.