Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres on Sunday alerted UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to what he said were provocations by Lebanon's Hizbollah near the divided and partially occupied village of Ghajar along the Israeli-Lebanese border, Israeli public radio reported, cited by AFP.
"Hizbollah is planning provocations against Israel around Ghajar," Peres said during a telephone conversation with Annan, quoted by the radio.
Peres called on the United Nations to exert its authority in the zone.
A Hizbollah leader in southern Lebanon, Nabil Qaouq, on Sunday visited Ghajar despite Israel declaring the village off limits to non-residents.
According to the Daily Star, Qaouq led a crowd of about 200 Hizbollah members and civilians to the northern edge of the occupied village, which lies on Lebanon's side of the United Nations' Blue Line.
"My visit is a message to Israel that the resistance will not hesitate to defend any inch of Lebanese territory, no matter how much Israeli threats increase," Qaouq said.
"This is Lebanese land that was liberated by the resistance," he added.
Israeli soldiers patrolled the area overlooking Ghajar during Qaouq's visit. Israel fears Hizbollah may establish a permanent presence in the northern "Lebanese" part of Ghajar and attempt to infiltrate Israel through the unfenced village.
The residents are concerned that if Hizbollah and reporters continue visiting Ghajar, the Israelis will ignore their wishes and run a fence along the Blue Line, which splits Ghajar into Lebanese and Syrian sectors.
A diplomatic source told the paper that Israel's fears were exaggerated. Hizbollah had decided to liberate the Shabaa Farms, the source said, but has not said the same about Ghajar, which is already liberated and therefore has no need for any anti-Israeli operations.
Israeli Defense Minister Binyamin Ben Eliezer complained Wednesday that the Hizbollah forces were infiltrating Ghajar.
He warned the alleged movements were "a gross violation of the status quo" of the occupation and added that Israel would "not tolerate" such a change.
According to Haaretz, Ben Eliezer has been for the past few weeks trying to find a solution to the Ghajar dilemma. In talks with UN and United States representatives, and with the villagers of Ghajar, he has proposed reactivating the vacated UN posts and building a fence around the village, so as to prevent "hostile" incursions.
Israel captured Ghajar, an Alawite Muslim village straddling the Syrian Golan Heights and the Lebanese and Israeli borders, from Syria in the 1967 war.
When Israel withdrew from south Lebanon last year, the United Nations certified the border separating Israel and Lebanon and placed half of Ghajar on the Israeli side of its "Blue Line."
Military sources were quoted by AFP as saying that an agreement was reached with the United Nations at the time that groups hostile to Israel would not be allowed into Ghajar.
The residents of Ghajar, most of whom obtained Israeli citizenship after the conquest of the Golan by Israel, want the village to be returned to Syria, according to AFP - Albawaba.com
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