Off the wire
• Interview: China's involvement crucial to strengthen wildlife conservation in Africa  • EU membership in Scotland's best interests: Scottish minister  • 10 Yemeni civilians mistakenly killed by Saudi-led warplanes  • Chinese premier vows to integrate informatization, real economy  • Chinese company to help build North-South Road Corridor in Armenia  • Portuguese trade unions welcome public holiday restored by Socialist gov't  • Microsoft to slash 1,350 jobs in Finland  • Chinese vice premier demands poverty relief for ethnic minorities  • Eintracht Frankfurt appoint Fredi Bobic as new sports chairman  • Cristiano Ronaldo drops new contract hint  
You are here: 　 Home

Feature: Mobilization along the Israeli-Lebanese borders on Liberation Day

Xinhua, May 26, 2016 Adjust font size:

Since the early hours of Wednesday, both sides of the borders between Lebanon and Israel witnessed wide mobilization of troops between Israel and Hezbollah who is celebrating the 16th anniversary of liberating south Lebanon from the Israeli occupation forces.

The Liberation Day is celebrated officially in Lebanon on May 25.

In May 2000, the Israeli occupation forces started withdrawing from south Lebanon, which had been occupied since 1978.

A Lebanese security source told Xinhua that the Israeli forces intensified their monitoring operations along the border line since the early hours of Wednesday, while its drones overflew the border region.

According to the source who spoke on condition of anonymity, the Israeli army took special measures, including a complete halt of its armored patrols along the borders while special monitoring stations were installed in their fortified positions overlooking the borders.

For its part, Hezbollah raised its flags on the occasion along with posters of its martyrs that were killed during the liberation battles in all the villages and towns of south Lebanon.

Meanwhile, the United Nations Interim Force in South Lebanon (UNIFIL) were on high alert andmonitoring all the movements on both sides of the borders.

A Malaysian officer from the UNIFIL told Xinhua that the border region is witnessing a heavy movement of the Lebanese citizen who were raising the Lebanese flags and celebrating the Liberation day in their villages.

Souad al-Zahra, a Lebanese woman who came to celebrate the occasion to the border region overlooking an Israeli settlement, told Xinhua that he appreciates that the Lebanese resistance of Hezbollah managed to defeat the Israeli forces and liberated south Lebanon that were forbidden to visit during the occupation years.

Hassan Hachem from the Shebaa town pointed towards the still occupied Shebaa farms and told Xinhua that "I own in that region a farm with an area of 20,000 square meters. The Israeli army kicked us out of it in 1967 and destroyed all the olive trees on it."

The Shebaa farms are a subject of dispute as Lebanon calls it Lebanese lands while Israel insists it is Syrian. Endit