Report: Hezbollah Establishes Outpost in Israeli Territory

Israeli soldiers stand guard during ongoing maintenance work along the Lebanese border, near Avivim town in northern Israel on June 13, 2023. (Photo by JALAA MAREY / AFP)
Israeli soldiers stand guard during ongoing maintenance work along the Lebanese border, near Avivim town in northern Israel on June 13, 2023. (Photo by JALAA MAREY / AFP)
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Report: Hezbollah Establishes Outpost in Israeli Territory

Israeli soldiers stand guard during ongoing maintenance work along the Lebanese border, near Avivim town in northern Israel on June 13, 2023. (Photo by JALAA MAREY / AFP)
Israeli soldiers stand guard during ongoing maintenance work along the Lebanese border, near Avivim town in northern Israel on June 13, 2023. (Photo by JALAA MAREY / AFP)

The US is reportedly pressing the Lebanese government and military to take steps to dismantle a Hezbollah outpost established on the Israel-Lebanon border, Israeli and US officials told Axios news website on Friday.

The officials, who were not named by Axios, told the news website that Hezbollah established the outpost several weeks ago in Israeli territory.

According to a senior Israeli official, Hezbollah operatives set up a tent on April 8 in an area that is north of the border fence between Israel and Lebanon, but 30 meters south of the internationally recognized Blue Line in an area considered by the UN to be Israeli territory.

Not until weeks later, was the Israeli military aware of the tent in Israeli territory when the party added a second tent, a water tank and a generator to the outpost, he noted.

Officials in the US State Department and the Department of Defense (the Pentagon) had assured the UNIFIL forces in Lebanon (UNIFIL), the Lebanese government and army, of the need to evacuate the Hezbollah site, US and Israeli officials pointed out.

“Our goal is to move the outpost out of there. We prefer Hezbollah will do it themselves than to bomb it," Axios quoted a senior Israeli official as saying.

 



UN Agency Says Israel Shuts 4 Schools in East Jerusalem

A boy stands outside the gate of the Kalandia vocational training center (KTC), run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), which was raided by Israeli forces earlier at the Qalandiya camp for Palestinian refugees in the occupied West Bank on February 18, 2025. (AFP)
A boy stands outside the gate of the Kalandia vocational training center (KTC), run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), which was raided by Israeli forces earlier at the Qalandiya camp for Palestinian refugees in the occupied West Bank on February 18, 2025. (AFP)
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UN Agency Says Israel Shuts 4 Schools in East Jerusalem

A boy stands outside the gate of the Kalandia vocational training center (KTC), run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), which was raided by Israeli forces earlier at the Qalandiya camp for Palestinian refugees in the occupied West Bank on February 18, 2025. (AFP)
A boy stands outside the gate of the Kalandia vocational training center (KTC), run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), which was raided by Israeli forces earlier at the Qalandiya camp for Palestinian refugees in the occupied West Bank on February 18, 2025. (AFP)

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees says Israeli forces raided four of its schools in east Jerusalem, ordering their closure.

Israel has severed all ties with the agency, known as UNRWA, and bars it from operating in its territory. It says the agency allowed itself to be infiltrated by Hamas in the Gaza Strip, allegations denied by UN officials.

UNRWA said police entered a training center by force on Tuesday, firing tear gas and sound grenades and ordering its evacuation. It said 350 students and 30 staff were present during the raid on the Qalandiya Training Center.

It said police and city officials ordered the closure of three other schools in east Jerusalem, two of which proceeded with the school day.

Israeli police spokesman Dean Elsdunne said police did not enter the UN buildings and that Jerusalem municipal authorities carried out the closures. He said police were deployed to protect the city workers, using “riot dispersal” means in one case where a crowd threw stones at them outside a UN facility.

Roland Friedrich, UNRWA director for the occupied West Bank, including east Jerusalem, said the raids were an “unacceptable violation of United Nations privileges and immunities,” and a “denial of the right to education for children and trainees.”