The IDF stands back as Hizballah plants armed position on Mt Dov

That the Lebanese Hizballah had furtively established a small armed presence on the Israeli-held segment of Mount Dov (Shebaa Farms) came out at a recent Knesset committee session. It turns out that two tents had been put up to house three to eight armed men opposite Israel’s military position. IDF sources say they saw this happening but held back from responding, preferring to let it ride for now so as not to let Hizballah win kudos for a successful provocation. Diplomacy was the preferred path of action. The foreign ministry has been working on the problem with international contacts,  including discussions with the UN Interim force which supervises the “blue line” border between Israel and Lebanon..

This was not the first Hizballah encroachment. Last week, Israeli troops drove its intruders back with the help of crowd dispersal measures. But this tactic was not repeated when they came back. The IDF stated: “The issue is known to us and being dealt with by the relevant authorities.”

Har Dov, or the Shebaa farms, is a scrap of land measuring 25 sq, km, wedged at the junction of southern Lebanon, southwest Syria and northern Israel. Syria and Lebanon have historically laid conflicting claims to the territory, whose borders have never been demarcated. In 1981, it came under Israel’s Golan Law.

The IDF has not come up with a reasonable explanation for its lack of response to Hizballah’s incursion, more than two weeks after its tents were first pegged in place on Israeli soil.