IDF soldiers used warning shots and crowd dispersal measures to distance at least twenty Lebanese citizens who crossed around 80 meters into Israeli territory in the isolated Mount Dov enclave on Saturday morning.
One of the people who crossed into Israeli territory was a Lebanese member of parliament as well as some journalists, Lebanese media reports said.
It was unclear if the IDF soldiers started clearing the Lebanese infiltrators after they started throwing rocks at the IDF soldiers or if the military confronted them simply on the basis of the border violation.
Earlier, the Lebanese refused to evacuate the area upon verbal warnings, which eventually led the IDF to use crowd dispersal means.
A military official defined the incident as a "Lebanese provocation."
Group that entered Israel said it was a "tour"
Lebanese media claimed that the IDF fired smoke grenades and tear gas at the group in what they described as a tour of the border area, and reported that those present on the tour inhaled smoke.
Lebanese media also reported that the group did not cross the border, but the IDF stated that they did.
Hezbollah has repeatedly ignored the UN set Blue Line which is supposed to delineate the border between the countries following Israel’s UN-recognized withdrawal from Lebanon in 2000.
This past Wednesday, there were two separate attempts to damage the border fence between Israel and Lebanon, from the Lebanese side, with the more serious of the two, involving explosives, confirmed as coming from Hezbollah.
The IDF prevented both.
Unlike the Har Dov "no-man's land" area, the area where the fence was being attacked on Wednesday is clearly delineated by the UN-approved blue line as being within Israeli territory.
The two incidents came on the 17th anniversary of the Second Lebanon War and right before Hezbollah Chief Hassan Nasrallah gave a high-profile speech.
Other incidents of border breaching
In the more serious Wednesday incident, around four Hezbollah suspects approached the northern security fence and attempted to sabotage it with explosives.
They set off the explosives, which also reportedly injured some of them, but failed to break through the fence.
The IDF soldiers immediately spotted the suspects and used non-lethal means to get them away from the fence.
Reports also indicated Saturday that in recent days there was another Lebanese move against the border in which some unidentified Lebanese ripped off and ran off with IDF surveillance equipment in the border areas.
All of this comes against the background of Hezbollah, around two months ago, setting up a small outpost of under 10 fighters a small number of meters into Israeli territory in the Mount Dov enclave.
The IDF has demanded, via the UN, that Hezbollah withdraw the outpost and Nasrallah has refused and said that if the IDF uses force that the terror group will respond with more force.
The Jerusalem Post has learned that though there is a split within the IDF about how long to wait to use force to remove the outpost, that for the coming weeks and possibly months, the camp favoring giving diplomacy more time is holding sway.