Lebanon: ‘resistance must continue’

Parliamentary speaker says despite Israeli pullout from disputed border village, resistance to neighbour must continue.

Ghajar
undefined
Ghajar was re-taken by Israel during the 2006 war with Hezbollah [AFP]

The parliamentary speaker in Lebanon has said that Israel’s withdrawal from a disputed border village will do little to assuage “resistance” against the country.

Nabih Berri made the comments on Thursday, after Israel pulled out of the northern half of Ghajar which it had occupied in 2006.

Israel’s security cabinet agreed to the move on Wednesday to end a long-standing dispute between the two countries.

The word “resistance” is often used by politicians in Lebanon to refer to the military wing of Hezbollah, the political and military group primarily based in southern Lebanon.

Hezbollah was created in opposition to Israel in 1982, and the pair fought a deadly war in 2006.

Israeli forces captured Ghajar from Syria in 1967, during the Six Day War. At the time the village lay on the Lebanese-Syrian border.

At the end of Israel’s occupation of southern Lebanon in 2000, the UN allocated half of Ghajar to Lebanon and half to Israel, however in the 2006 war with Hezbollah, Israel re-took the northern half of the village.

Source: News Agencies