Hezbollah’s Hassan Nasrallah vows to keep tents in occupied lands

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said his movement was tents set up in occupied Lebanese territory will stay up and will respond to any response by Israel to remove them.

Hezbollah members have erected tents on land occupied by Israel which have led to tensions on the border this week.

On Wednesday, an explosion along the border left several Hezbollah members wounded, but despite this Nasrallah said the tents will remain in place.

"Today’s incident is under [our] analysis…and I am waiting for a report on this" to take necessary action, Nasrallah said in a speech commemorating the start of the month-long war fought between his Iran-backed militant group and Israel in 2006.

The Israeli military said Wednesday that it used "a non-lethal weapon" to distance "a number of suspects" attempting to damage a "security fence" with Lebanon to the north.

The explosion, which could be seen in footage shared by the Israeli army, comes amid weeks of simmering tensions along the frontier which has seen Israel move deeper into Ghajar, and Hezbollah erecting tents in the occupied Shebaa Farms, territory claimed by Lebanon and Syria.

As part of a UN Security Council resolution that ended the 2006 war, Israel is to stop building work and withdraw from the northern part of Ghajar – an Arab village that Israel partially occupies – but this has not happened.

"The enemy is continuing to build the barbed wire fence at the border and has turned it into a tourist area where visitors come to see Ghajar," said Nasrallah, adding that the tents were on Lebanese land.

He said that contrary to reports in the media, the Hezbollah tents in the Shebaa Farms were set up only after Israel began building a barbed wire fence around Ghajar and not before that.

"Our tents are on Lebanese territory, and one of them is located inside the withdrawal line in the Shebaa Farms area. These tents have shed light again on the entire situation at the border," the militant leader announced.

He said Israel did not dare to remove the tents but his group’s members have instructions to act if it did.

Nasrallah also dismissed reports that Beirut was prepared to begin mediated discussions with Israel on demarcating the land border.

"There is no such thing as [land] border demarcation with occupied Palestine, the border has been demarcated since before the entity of Israel was created [in 1948]," he said, stressing that Israel must end its occupation of any territory it remains in.

"Lebanon's land border is demarcated and clear, but there are Lebanese points where the Israeli enemy is present, and therefore it must withdraw from them. Sovereignty is indivisible."

Nasrallah’s speech seemed to contradict the Lebanese government’s position on the matter.

Earlier reports in Lebanese media said that Western countries have informed the government of Israel’s willingness to engage in talks over land border demarcation despite previous objections.

Lebanese caretaker Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib said earlier this week that the proposal to demarcate the southern border with Israel was "serious," noting that delineation would solve the various disputes along the frontier.

"There are 13 disputed points on the border with Israel – seven of which are agreed on and six represent points of contention," Bou Habib added.

Both enemy states signed a historic agreement in October to demarcate their maritime border, opening up lucrative offshore gas fields in the east Mediterranean.

Despite skirmishes, the border has remained largely quiet since the 2006 war but observers believe that the dispute around Ghajar and the Shebaa Farms could ignite another conflict.

On Thursday, Israel's far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir – infamous for his extremist views – urged Israel to take action against Hezbollah’s "provocations."