Lebanese soldiers injured while Israeli troops intrude on southern town

Three Lebanese soldiers have been wounded while trying to defuse unexploded ordnance in the southern village of Zawtar al-Gharbiyah, the Lebanese army said.

Hours earlier on Saturday, the village mayor and Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency (NNA) said Israeli troops had entered and built an earth barrier overnight.

Mayor Abed Ezzeddine told the AFP news agency that residents were surprised to see the barrier, around 100 metres from the village square. The village had been placed under the control of Lebanon’s army as part of a June agreement with Israel.

A Lebanese military source called the move a violation of the framework accord, but the Israeli military told the AFP agency that it was “not aware of such an event in this area”.

“An Israeli occupation army force advanced into the village of Zawtar al-Gharbiyah shortly after midnight … and erected a new earthen barrier near the town square,” NNA reported. An AFP correspondent confirmed seeing the barrier blocking a road at the eastern entrance.

The Lebanese army had deployed to Zawtar al-Gharbiyah on July 21 and around 50 families have since returned to the village, Mayor Ezzeddine said. Israeli troops were on the outskirts of the village before the deployment.

The village is one of two “pilot zones” where the Lebanese army is deploying under a US-sponsored framework agreement signed with Israel on June 26 . It envisions a phased Israeli withdrawal in return for the disarmament of Hezbollah.

Al Jazeera’s correspondent in Tyre in southern Lebanon, Ihab al-Aqadi, said Israel had escalated the pace of its attacks over the past few days, in parallel with negotiations between Beirut and Tel Aviv in Rome .