{"id":24327,"date":"2018-12-04T20:23:24","date_gmt":"2018-12-04T20:23:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=24327"},"modified":"2018-12-04T20:23:24","modified_gmt":"2018-12-04T20:23:24","slug":"un-boosts-peacekeeping-patrols-on-lebanon-israel-border","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=24327","title":{"rendered":"UN boosts peacekeeping patrols on Lebanon-Israel border"},"content":{"rendered":"<div itemprop=\"articleBody\" data-io-article-url=\"http:\/\/www.arabnews.com\/node\/1415521\/middle-east\" readability=\"50\">\n<p>\nBEIRUT: UN peacekeepers said they increased patrols on the Lebanese-Israeli border on Tuesday after Israel announced an operation against what it said were Hezbollah infiltration tunnels.<br \/>The Israeli army said it launched an operation dubbed \u201cNorthern Shield\u201d to destroy \u201cattack tunnels\u201d it accused the Iran-backed Lebanese militia of digging under the border.<br \/>Hezbollah had not yet reacted and the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon said they had increased patrols along the border, as Israeli bulldozers went to work.<br \/>\u201cThe overall situation in UNIFIL\u2019s area of operation remains calm,\u201d Joumana Sayegh, a spokeswoman for the UN mission which monitors the border region, said in a statement.<br \/>\u201cUNIFIL is working with all interlocutors in order to maintain the overall stability,\u201d she said.<br \/>\u201cUNIFIL peacekeepers have further increased their patrolling along the Blue Line, together with the Lebanese Armed Forces,\u201d Sayegh added, referring to the UN-established cease-fire line.<br \/>Lebanon\u2019s army also said it was monitoring the situation closely.<br \/>\u201cArmy units deployed in the area are carrying out their usual missions along the border in cooperation and coordination with UNIFIL,\u201d it said.<br \/>Hezbollah gained its moniker as \u201cthe Resistance\u201d among its supporters by fighting Israeli troops, who occupied southern Lebanon until 2000.<br \/>In 2006, Israel and Hezbollah fought a devastating month-long war during which the Shiite group made extensive use of a network of tunnels to counter Israeli troops.<br \/>Israel appears increasingly concerned that Iran is attempting to transfer some of its military influence from Syria, where Russia is the government\u2019s top ally, to Lebanon.<br \/>Near the Lebanese village of Kfar Kila, an AFP photographer on Tuesday saw at least one Israeli bulldozer churning up earth, apparently as part of Operation Northern Shield.<br \/>The Israeli military said it had located one tunnel dug from a home in the Kafr Kela area that crossed into its territory and was working to \u201cneutralize\u201d it.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BEIRUT: UN peacekeepers said they increased patrols on the Lebanese-Israeli border on Tuesday after Israel announced an operation against what it said were Hezbollah infiltration tunnels.The Israeli army said it launched an operation dubbed \u201cNorthern Shield\u201d to destroy \u201cattack tunnels\u201d it accused the Iran-backed Lebanese militia of digging under the border.Hezbollah had not yet reacted&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":24328,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24327","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24327","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24327"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24327\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/24328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}