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By: AP & WIN
The Lebanese army said troops fired tear gas at Israeli soldiers in a disputed area along the border between the two countries Saturday.
No one was hurt in the incident.
The area where the incident occurred is in Mount Dov – also known as Shebaa Farms – and the Kfar Chouba hills that were captured by Israel from Syria during the 1967 Six Day War were placed under Israeli sovereignty in 1981.
The Lebanese government insists the area actually belongs to Lebanon.
The Lebanese army said a bulldozer was working on the Lebanese side of the border to remove a sand barrier placed earlier by the Israelis when Israeli troops fired tear gas to force it to stop.
The army said Lebanese troops responded by firing tear gas at the Israeli soldiers.
The Israeli military said soldiers spotted an engineering vehicle’s shovel crossing the border line from Lebanon into Israeli territory in the area of Mount Dov.
It added that in response, Israeli soldiers used “riot dispersal means” and the vehicle returned to Lebanese territory.
The Lebanon-Israel border has been relatively calm since Israel and Hezbollah fought a 34-day war in 2006. Despite that, there have been tensions.
In April, Israel launched rare airstrikes in southern Lebanon after terrorists fired nearly three dozen rockets from Lebanon at Israel, wounding two people and causing property damage.
In July, Israeli forces shelled a southern Lebanese border village after several explosions were heard on the Israeli side of the frontier.
In other developments, World Israel News reported that Israeli security forces arrested eight terrorists Sunday, breaking up a terror cell the military said was preparing for an imminent attack on an Israeli target.
The eight terrorists, affiliated with the Gaza-based Hamas terror organization, were operating out of the Birzeit University near Ramallah, an IDF spokesperson said Sunday afternoon.
The terror cell was planning on carrying out an attack in the near future, the army added, likely during the Yom Kippur holiday, which begins at sundown on Sunday.
IDF forces working in conjunction with the Shin Bet carried out the Birzeit University campus raid.
A ninth terrorist was also apprehended in the village of Birzeit, though it is unclear if this arrest was connected to the cell uncovered at the university.
Four other Hamas terrorists were also arrested in raids in the Hebron district of Judea before dawn Sunday.
The four terrorists, who were captured in the town of Khirbat Karme, just south of Hebron, were part of the “Haktala Islamiya” wing of the Hamas organization, which enlists students to aid the terror group.
“This is another example of how the Hamas terrorist organization uses legitimate institutions in order to promote terrorist activities and serve as a refuge for these operations,” an IDF spokesperson said.
WIN also reported that an Israeli soldier was moderately wounded during clashes between the IDF and terror groups operating in the Palestinian Authority-controlled town of Nur Shams, near Tulkarem early Sunday morning.
The IDF was conducting a counter-terror raid, which saw troops successfully seize large amounts of explosives and weapons, as well as arrest several suspects wanted for terror-related offenses.
The mission was a collaborative effort involving soldiers from the Golani Brigade, Yahalom special forces, the Border Police, the Egoz commando unit, and the Shin Bet intelligence agency.