KFAR CHOUBA, Lebanon: The little village of GHajjar has been a sore point between Israel and Lebanon for years, split in two by the border between Lebanon and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. But after a long period of calm, the dispute has begun to heat up again.
Israel has been building a wall around the half of the village in Lebanese territory, triggering condemnation from the Lebanese militiant force Hezbollah, accusing Israel of moving to annex the site. A recent exchange of fire in the area raised alarm that the dispute could trigger violence.
The growing tensions over GHajjar add to the jitters along the Lebanese-Israeli border, where Israel and Iranian-backed Hezbollah fought a destructive 34-day war in the summer of 2006. The two sides have studiously avoided outright battle ever since, despite frequent flare-ups of tension — but each constantly says a new conflict could erupt at any time.
The dispute over a small village in the green hills where Lebanon, Israel and Syria meet brings a new point of worry amid broader unrest. The West Bank has seen increased bloodshed the past week, with a major two-day offensive that Israel says targeted Palestinian militants. Within Israel, moves by the hard-right government to overhaul the judicial system have sparked large anti-government protests.
“This is Lebanese land, not Israeli,” said Lebanese shepherd Ali Yassin Diab, pointing to the half of GHajjar being enclosed by the Israeli wall as he grazed his sheep and goats nearby. Members of the UN peacekeeping force UNIFIL watched from a distance. In the early 2000s, Yassin used to take his herds to drink at a pond there but has since been cut off.
The village’s division is an unusual byproduct of the decades of conflict between Israel and its neighbors.
GHajjar was once part of Syria but was captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war as part of Syria’s Golan Heights, which Israel occupied and later annexed, with little world recognition.
In the 1980s and 1990s, GHajjar’s population expanded north into nearby Lebanese territory, held by Israel in its 18-year occupation of southern Lebanon. When Israel withdrew from Lebanon in May 2000, UN surveyors delineating temporary borders ruled that GHajjar’s northern part was in Lebanon, its southern part in the Golan, dividing it in two.
Six years later, Israeli troops moved into the northern part of GHajjar during the Israel-Hezbollah war. They have occupied it since and a fence was installed preventing people from entering it from Lebanon. Under the truce that ended the 2006 fighting, Israel agreed to withdraw from GHajjar, but it wanted to clinch an arrangement to keep Hezbollah from entering the village.
In a statement to the Associated Press on Friday, the Israeli Foreign Ministry said Israel recognizes the line dividing the village in 2000 but said that following the division, “Hezbollah established itself in the village” and attempted an abduction of an Israeli soldier.
Most of GHajjar’s around 3,000 residents hold Israeli nationality — some of them alongside Lebanese — and they largely identify as Syrians.
Last year, Israel started erecting a concrete wall around the northern part of the village. It also began encouraging Israeli tourism to the village. In its statement, the foreign ministry said that the wall “is on the same route as the fence that was in place before” around the village.
In apparent reply to the near finishing of the wall, Hezbollah set up two tents nearby, including one in the area of Chebaa Farms, which both Israel and Lebanon claim as its territory. It is not clear what is inside the tents.
Israel filed a complaint with the United Nations, claiming the tents were several dozen meters (yards) inside of Israeli territory. Hezbollah says the tents are in Lebanese territory.
On Monday, UNIFIL’s commander relayed an Israeli request to Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister and parliament speaker to remove the tent. They responded that Israel should withdraw its troops from the Lebanese part of GHajjar, according to Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bouhabib.
Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said in a speech Wednesday night that Israel cordoned off GHajjar before Hezbollah set up its tents.
“Over the past days, it became clear that they (Israel) have annexed it,” Nasrallah said. He added: “The land of GHajjar will not be left for Israel, and certainly not Chebaa Farms and Kfar Chouba,” another border area claimed by both countries.
A female resident of GHajjar, speaking to the AP on condition of anonymity due to security concerns, said the villagers consider themselves Syrian but their main concern “is to stay in GHajjar, in this village, living in peace and security. No matter under who rules.”
“There is a (border) line that was drawn by the United Nations. Why are they allowed to cross it while we as Lebanese citizens cannot?” Mohammed Rammal, the mayor of the nearby Lebanese border village of Oddeissi, said of Israel’s presence in GHajjar.
Last week, an anti-tank missile was fired from Lebanon near GHajjar, with some fragments landing in Lebanon and others inside Israeli territory. Israel fired shells on the outskirts of the nearby village of Kfar Chouba.
On Wednesday, an explosion elsewhere near the border slightly wounded at least three Hezbollah members. Nasrallah said the case is still under investigation. Late last month, Hezbollah said it shot down an Israel drone flying over a village in southern Lebanon.
On Monday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with President Joe Biden’s special envoy for energy, Amos Hochstein, during which they discussed “regional issues,” according to the Israeli prime minister’s office.
Some Israeli media said Netanyahu and Hochstein, who helped last year broker a maritime border deal between Israel and Lebanon, discussed tensions along the border with Lebanon.
“We continue to monitor and engage with authorities in Lebanon and Israel on the issue of GHajjar,” UNIFIL spokeswoman Kandice Ardiel said. She added that UNIFIL has repeatedly called on Israel to stop its works north of the line and that Israel’s occupation of northern GHajjar violates the UN Security Council resolution that ended the 2006 war.
Israel considers Hezbollah its most serious immediate threat, estimating it has some 150,000 rockets and missiles aimed at Israel.
During a tour by an Associated Press team near GHajjar this week, more patrols by UN peacekeepers and the Lebanese army along the border were visible. Residents in nearby villages appeared defiant and going on with life as usual during the summer season, when many expatriates come to spend time with their families.
In Lebanese media, many analysts say neither side wants a new war. But Lebanese political analyst Faisal Abdul-Sater warned that the situation is very dangerous as Israel and Hezbollah are on alert.
“Whoever fires the first shot will bear the responsibility for the consequences,” he said.
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AP correspondent Josef Federman contributed to this report.
Moves at a small border village hike Israel-Hezbollah tensions at a time of regional jitters
https://arab.news/8uudy
Moves at a small border village hike Israel-Hezbollah tensions at a time of regional jitters

- The growing tensions over GHajjar add to the jitters along the Lebanese-Israeli border
UN aid chief welcomes ‘humanitarian pauses’ in Gaza

- OCHA says UN teams in place to ramp up deliveries into the Palestinian territory ‘as soon as they are allowed to do so’
- OCHA notes constraints imposed by the Israeli authorities had hampered humanitarians’ ability to respond
GENEVA: The United Nations’ aid chief welcomed Israel’s announcement Sunday of secure land routes into Gaza for humanitarian convoys, and said the UN would try to reach as many starving people as possible.
“Welcome announcement of humanitarian pauses in Gaza to allow our aid through,” UN emergency relief coordinator Tom Fletcher said on X.
“In contact with our teams on the ground who will do all we can to reach as many starving people as we can in this window.”
Fletcher’s UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) warned Friday that conditions on the ground in Gaza were “already catastrophic and deteriorating fast.”
“The starvation crisis is deepening,” it said, warning that hunger and malnutrition increase the risk of illnesses, and adding that the consequences can quickly “turn deadly.”
It said that “the trickle of supplies that are making it into the Strip are nowhere near adequate to address the immense needs.”
OCHA said UN teams were in place to ramp up deliveries into the Palestinian territory “as soon as they are allowed to do so.”
“If Israel opens the crossings, lets fuel and equipment in, and allows humanitarian staff to operate safely, the UN will accelerate the delivery of food aid, health services, clean water and waste management, nutrition supplies, and shelter materials,” it said.
OCHA said constraints imposed by the Israeli authorities had hampered humanitarians’ ability to respond.
It said that on Thursday, for example, out of 15 attempts to coordinate humanitarian movements inside Gaza, four were “outright denied,” with another three impeded.
One was postponed, and two others had to be canceled, meaning only five missions went ahead.
On Friday OCHA issued an aid delivery plan in the event of a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Israeli army says two soldiers killed in south Gaza

- Israeli military sources said they were killed when their armored vehicle exploded in the city of Khan Yunis
JERUSALEM: Two Israeli soldiers were killed in combat in southern Gaza on Sunday, the military said, a day after confirming another soldier had died of wounds sustained last week.
“We have lost three young heroes — some of our finest — who gave their lives for the security of our state and the return of all our hostages,” Defense Minister Israel Katz said on X.
The two soldiers, aged 20 and 22, served in the Golani Infantry Brigade’s 51st Battalion.
Israeli military sources said they were killed when their armored vehicle exploded in the city of Khan Yunis.
Military correspondents from several Israeli media outlets said the blast was caused by an improvised explosive device detonated by a militant who emerged from a tunnel.
An investigation was underway.
The Israeli military says 462 soldiers have been killed since the start of its ground offensive in Gaza on October 27, 2023.
Israel launched its Gaza military campaign after Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack, which resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
The Israeli campaign has killed 59,733 Palestinians, mostly civilians, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.
Activist boat Handala seized off Gaza brought to Israel

- The ship’s interception comes as Israel faces mounting international criticism over the worsening humanitarian situation in Gaza
Israeli forces brought the pro-Palestinian activist boat Handala into the port of Ashdod on Sunday, after seizing the vessel in international waters and detaining the crew, an AFP journalist saw.
Campaigners from the Freedom Flotilla Coalition had attempted to breach an Israeli naval blockade of the Palestinian territory of Gaza, but were intercepted late Saturday.
The legal rights centre Adalah told AFP its lawyers were in Ashdod and had demanded to speak to the 21-strong international crew, which includes two French parliamentarians and two Al Jazeera journalists.
"Israeli forces intercepted the Handala in international waters at around midnight on 27 July 2025 and contact with the activists was lost. This peaceful civilian mission was dedicated to the children of Gaza," the group said.
"This ship, which sailed as part of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, is part of the coalition's ongoing efforts to break Israel's illegal and deadly blockade on the Palestinian people in Gaza."
Earlier, the Israeli foreign ministry said the Israeli navy stopped the Handala to prevent it from entering the coastal waters off the territory of Gaza.
"The vessel is safely making its way to the shores of Israel. All passengers are safe," it said.
Just before midnight local time on Saturday, video live stream broadcast from the Handala showed Israeli troops boarding the vessel. An online tracker showed the ship in international waters west of Gaza.
The ship had been on course to try to break an Israeli naval blockade of Gaza and bring a small quantity of humanitarian aid to the territory's Palestinian residents.
The Handala's crew had said before their capture in a post on X that they would go on a hunger strike if the Israeli army intercepted the boat and detained its passengers.
On board were activists from 10 countries, including two French MPs form the left-wing France Unbowed party, Emma Fourreau and Gabrielle Cathala.
A previous boat sent by Freedom Flotilla, the Madleen, was also intercepted by the Israeli military in international waters on June 9 and towed to Ashdod.
It carried 12 campaigners, including prominent Swedish activist Greta Thunberg. The activists were eventually expelled by Israel.
Israel declares Gaza fighting pause amid deepening hunger crisis

- The military’s statement did not say when the humanitarian corridors for UN convoys would open, or where
- It also said the military is prepared to implement humanitarian pauses in densely populated areas
GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories: Israel declared a “tactical pause” in fighting in parts of Gaza on Sunday and said it would allow the UN and aid agencies to open secure land routes to tackle a deepening hunger crisis.
The military also said it had begun air-dropping food into the territory and angrily rejected allegations it was using starvation as a weapon against Palestinian civilians.
In a statement, the army said it coordinated its decisions with the UN and international organizations to “increase the scale of humanitarian aid entering the Gaza Strip.”
There was no immediate official response from the UN or non-governmental aid agencies operating in Gaza, and privately skeptical humanitarian sources said they were waiting to see the results on the ground of the Israeli announcement.
The pause in fighting would be limited to areas where the military says Israeli troops are not currently operating — Al-Mawasi, Deir El-Balah and Gaza City — and last from 10:00 a.m. (0700 GMT) until 8:00 p.m. every day.
But the Israeli statement added that “designated secure routes” had been opened across all of Gaza to enable the safe passage of UN and humanitarian aid organization convoys delivering and distributing food and medicine.
The Israeli military said these operations, alongside its ongoing campaign against Palestinian armed groups, should disprove “the false claim of deliberate starvation in the Gaza Strip.”
Israel imposed a total blockade on Gaza on March 2 after ceasefire talks broke down. In late May, it began allowing a small trickle of aid to resume, amid warnings of a wave of starvation.
Before Israel announced the airborne delivery of seven pallets of food, the United Arab Emirates had said it would restart aid drops and Britain said it would work with partners including Jordan to assist them.
On Saturday alone, the Palestinian civil defense agency said over 50 more Palestinians had been killed in Israeli strikes and shootings, some as they waited near aid distribution centers.
“We ask God and our Arab brothers to work harder to reach a ceasefire before we all die,” Gaza resident Hossam Sobh said, adding that he had feared death as he recovered a bag of flour under the nose of an Israeli tank.
Also on Saturday, Israeli troops boarded a boat carrying activists from the Freedom Flotilla Coalition as it attempted to approach Gaza from the sea to challenge a naval blockade.
Israeli forces brought the pro-Palestinian activist boat Handala into the port of Ashdod on Sunday, after seizing the vessel in international waters and detaining the crew, an AFP journalist saw.
The humanitarian situation in the Palestinian territory has gravely deteriorated in recent days, with more than 100 NGOs warning this week that “mass starvation” was spreading in Gaza.
On Telegram, the Israeli military announced it “carried out an airdrop of humanitarian aid as part of the ongoing efforts to allow and facilitate the entry of aid into the Gaza Strip.”
Humanitarian chiefs are deeply skeptical that air drops can deliver enough food safely to tackle the deepening hunger crisis facing Gaza’s more than two million inhabitants.
But British Prime Minister Keir Starmer backed the idea, vowing to work with Jordan to restart air drops. The United Arab Emirates said it would resume air drops “immediately.”
A number of Western and Arab governments carried out air drops in Gaza in 2024, when aid deliveries by land also faced Israeli restrictions, but many in the humanitarian community consider them ineffective.
“Air drops will not reverse the deepening starvation,” said Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA. “They are expensive, inefficient and can even kill starving civilians.”
Israel’s military insists it does not limit the number of trucks going into Gaza, and alleges that UN agencies and relief groups are not collecting aid once it is inside the territory.
But humanitarian organizations accuse the army of imposing excessive restrictions, while tightly controlling road access within Gaza.
A separate aid operation is under way through the Israeli- and US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.
But it has faced fierce international criticism after Israeli fire killed hundreds of Palestinians near distribution points.
On Saturday evening, the live feed on the Handala boat belonging to pro-Palestinian activist group Freedom Flotilla showed Israeli troops boarding the vessel.
The soldiers moved in as the boat approached Gaza and three video live feeds of the scene broadcasting online were cut minutes later.
Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties in accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify tolls and details provided by the civil defense agency and other parties.
Israel launched its military campaign in Gaza after Hamas’s October 2023 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
The Israeli campaign has killed 59,733 Palestinians, mostly civilians, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.
Wildfires threaten Turkiye’s fourth-largest city as locals are evacuated

- Overnight fires in the forested mountains surrounding Bursa in northwest Turkiye spread rapidly
- Turkiye has been hit by dozens of wildfires daily since late June
ISTANBUL: Wildfires that have engulfed Turkiye for weeks threatened the country’s fourth-largest city early Sunday, causing hundreds of people to flee their homes.
Overnight fires in the forested mountains surrounding Bursa in northwest Turkiye spread rapidly, bringing a red glow to the night sky over the city’s eastern suburbs.
Bursa governor’s office said in a statement Sunday that 1,765 people had been safely evacuated from villages to the northeast as more than 1,100 firefighters battled the flames. The highway linking Bursa to the capital, Ankara, was closed as surrounding forests burned.
Orhan Saribal, an opposition parliamentarian for the province, described the scene as “an apocalypse.”
By morning, lessening winds brought some respite to firefighters, who continued efforts to bring down the flames. However, TV footage revealed an ashen landscape where farms and pine forests had earlier stood.
Turkiye has been hit by dozens of wildfires daily since late June. Forestry Minister Ibrahim Yamukli said fire crews across the country confronted 76 separate blazes Saturday.
The fires are being fueled by unseasonally high temperatures, dry conditions and string winds.
The General Directorate of Meteorology said Turkiye recorded its highest ever temperature, 50.5C (122.9F) in the southeastern Sirnak province on Friday. The highest temperatures for July were seen in 132 other locations, it added.
Yamukli said the country’s northwest was under the greatest threat, including Karabuk, where wildfires have burned since Tuesday.
Thirteen people have died in recent weeks, including 10 rescue volunteers and forestry workers killed Wednesday in a fire in Eskisehir in western Turkiye.
Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc said late Saturday that prosecutors had investigated fires in 33 provinces since June 26, adding that legal action had been taken against 97 suspects.
The severity of the fires led the government to declare two western provinces, Izmir and Bilecik, disaster areas on Friday.