Lebanese Celebrate Victory Along Border with IsraelHundreds of Lebanese Thursday morning gathered on the Lebanon side of border fence at the Good Fence Crossing in northern Israel to celebrate a national holiday following the Israeli troop withdrawal.The jubilant Lebanese reveled at the reunification of their homeland after Israel brought its two-decade occupation of south Lebanon to a haste and disorderly end early Wednesday. The demonstrators were waving Lebanese national flags and the flags of Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shiite Muslim militia who had been spearheading fighting to end Israelis occupation, and shouting slogans, such as "Deaths to Israelis" and "Hezbollah gets power." The Israelis decided to withdraw troops from south Lebanon in March, after Hezbollah guerrillas made the lives of Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in the so-called security zone very hard and caused great casualties. The zone was set up by Israel in 1985 after two invasions, with a self-claimed aim to protect its north from cross-border guerrilla attacks. Since then, Most Lebanese have been barred from entering into the area. A middle-aged Lebanese, who preferred not to be named, said Wednesday that he had not been in the Good Fence Crossing area for 24 years. Once he got the news from the television that Lebanon had reclaimed its south, the men added, he just could not wait to come there to embrace the land again. Another Lebanese with traditional Arab kerchief, who also asked anonymity, said:" Thank Allah (God), we returned to the land finally. And Allah (God) Curse the evil Israelis." The frolic children, who were brought there by their parents to show them the land is theirs, were holding gun-toys, and posing for Journalists on the Israeli side of the border fence, which is one kilometer north of the town of Metulla. Mohammad Abbas, a Palestinian living in Lebanon as refugee interviewed by Xinhua, said "We Palestinians should also fight for taking over our land in the West Bank and Gaza Strip as Hezbollah had done in Lebanon." The Palestinians are in the process of negotiating with Israel in order to reach a peace agreement on final-status issues including Jerusalem, border, Jewish settlements, water, security and the return of Palestinian refugees. About 350,000 Palestinian refugees are now residing in Lebanon and many are eager to come back to their homeland. Nadoine Helad, a young Lebanese woman, said she never came to the area before but now she can came there freely and the feeling is very good. In contrast with the jubilation and happiness of most demonstrators, an old man, with tears in his eye, said that he still can not return home he used to live two decades ago, as it remains under control. The Israeli withdrawal is not complete, he said, some areas now on the current Israeli side of the fence are Lebanese territory. As the Israelis had to fast wrap up their withdrawal plan in the past few days due to the unexpectedly rapid collapse of their proxy South Lebanese Army, the exact line of the international border between Israel and Lebanon is still awaiting confirmation of the United States. The Israeli soldiers opposite the demonstrators were embarrassed by the taunts of Lebanese meters away. But there was no move from Israeli side, except for the occasional patrol of armed vehicles along the border fence. |
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