Drugs and ammunition allegedly seized by the Israeli army at the Lebanese-Israeli border. (Credit: Twitter/@AvichayAdraee)
BEIRUT — The Israeli army announced Monday that it had foiled a drug and ammunition smuggling operation from Lebanon, near the town of Hasbani, into its territory on Sunday, the Arabic-speaking spokesperson of the Israeli army, Avichay Adraee, said in a tweet.
Adraee indicated that Israeli soldiers "arrested a suspect and seized two pistols and 30 kilograms of drugs, worth 800,000 shekels," Israel's currency, or about $226,000.
Border security incidents between Lebanon and Israel are frequent, but arms and drug trafficking in the area is less so. Last June, the Israeli army announced that it had identified on the Lebanese-Israeli border a suspected drug smuggler, who was allegedly affiliated with Hezbollah.
The Israeli army accused Hezbollah of having dug numerous tunnels into Israel in 2019, which it proceeded to destroy.
Hezbollah’s leader said that his group had been able to enter Israel using these tunnels for years but stopped short of acknowledging that the tunnels were the handiwork of the party.
Despite the fact that Lebanon and Israel are technically still in a state of war, less than two weeks ago the two countries reached an agreement on the delineation of their common maritime border.