The border between Lebanon and Israel along the village of Dhaira, in Southern Lebanon, March 15, 2023. (Credit: Jalaa Marey/AFP)
Lebanon's army said on Wednesday it exchanged smoke bombs with Israeli troops at the border, the second of such incidents in a week.
The Lebanese Army stated online that Israeli troops fired smoke bombs at a Lebanese patrol that was accompanying workers removing "infringements" that the Army said had been set up by the Israelis north of the Blue Line.
Lebanese army troops "responded by firing smoke bombs toward enemy troops," the statement said.
It was the second of such incidents in a week, after troops exchanged tear gas and smoke bombs over a similar dispute along the Blue Line.
UNIFIL spokesperson, Andrea Tenenti told L'Orient Today Wednesday that the organization's "peacekeepers were fully engaged to de-escalate the situation."
UNIFIL leadership was "also engaged with the parties, urging restraint to decrease tension and prevent the escalation of the situation. According to the latest reports, the situation in now calm," Tenenti continued.
Tensions have flared along the frontier this summer, with rockets fired during flare-ups of Israeli-Palestinian violence and face-offs between Hezbollah and Israeli forces.
Neither the Israeli military nor the United Nations peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon immediately responded to Reuters requests for comment.
The current demarcation line between the two countries is known as the Blue Line, a frontier mapped by the United Nations that marks the line to which Israeli forces withdrew when their occupation of south Lebanon ended in 2000.