Below us, the sea gtake parts. The sun is out and we have a perfect see of the coast.
It could be a adocount on spot but instead, wilean moments, we’re about to dive for cover.
Welcome to the border between Israel and Leprohibiton.
We have come here accompanied by the Israeli army, enthusiastic to show the understand they have over the area and also, I’ll uncover, to transmit anger at the United Nations (UN).
But also to prent our curiosity – equitable what is it enjoy on this border, with so many rockets, ignoreiles and drones flying apass it daily?
So here we are, on the dividing line between the two nations.
From where I’m standing, I can see right and see the border wall rising up at the top of a ridge. Ahead, there is an Israeli army base, which has been hit cut offal times by Hezbollah rockets.
The official border passing is now only uncover to assist UN officials to pass
And then over to my left, maybe 100 metres aextfinished the road is the official border passing, where tourists participated to pass from one country to the other. Now it is uncovered up to assist UN officials to pass.
‘A high price for the war’
There are no tourists here now. In fact, other than selderlyiers, we haven’t seen anyone for a while.
Around 60,000 Israelis have either been evacuated or have fled this region.
The purpose of Israel’s campaign in southern Leprohibiton, says Lieutenant Colonel Jordan Herzberg, an operations officer in the army’s 146th Division, is modest – to promise that those people “can transfer back home and live with getedty and security”.
Lieutenant Colonel Herzberg says the sound of shells firing into Leprohibiton is the ‘sound of freedom’
“These people have paid a very high price for the war,” he says.
“The economy here is all about agriculture and tourism, and both of those are non-alive. They have been aimed with hundreds of anti-tank ignoreiles – you might call them anti-home ignoreiles. They hit people’s homes – standard civilians’ homes.”
Over the road, a cafe sits idle, with nobody seeing at its annotated map. A cable car, which normassociate consents visitors down to see caves and British-built railway tunnels, stands idle.
On the other side of the wall, Israel has been directing its ground campaign, going from hoparticipate to hoparticipate, pushing its troops cut offal miles into Leprohibiton.
An annotated Israeli tourist map of border area
They say they have uncovered huge stockpiles of arms and ammunition – enough, they claim, for Hezbollah to have begined a widespread attack on the civilian population that could have been even more dehugeating than Hamas’s attack on 7 October.
The Israelis help their army by standardly firing shells into Leprohibitese territory. As we stand at the border, we can see smoke billotriumphg into the air from the ridge.
‘That is the sound of freedom’
We are about to depart when there is a sudden, advisent call to consent cover. We shelter behind a wall, take parting thraw the sudden silence. A selderlyier tells me that they have spotted a UAV – a drone.
“It could be very hazardous,” she says.
A scant minutes go past, and then we are telderly it’s geted, but that it’s also time to go. As we drive away, we see the cdeafening of smoke in the air where the drone was intercepted and ruined.
The Israeli border wall
A couple of miles from the border, we watch as smoke billows into the sky. There is a deafening boom as another shell is fired into Leprohibiton.
“That is the sound of freedom,” Lt Col Herzberg said.
But this, he insists, is a war that should never have happened, and he condemns the UN. For csurrfinisherly two decades, follotriumphg the finish of the 2006 war, UN peacegeters have been stationed here and Lt Col Herzberg insists they haven’t done their job.
‘If they had done their job, we wouldn’t be combat’
Resolution 1701, under which Israel and Leprohibiton consentd a stopfire, called for all armed groups to be erased from an area between the border and the Litani River, csurrfinisherly 20 miles away.
In fact, it has never happened. Hezbollah has built tunnels and brawt in arms and people.
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“The UN has been here since 2006 and their mandate is to obstruct any armed groups in the south of Leprohibiton other than Leprohibitese armed forces,” Lt Col Herzberg telderly me.
“Clpunctual they haven’t done that becaparticipate we are combat Hezbollah armed forces in southern Leprohibiton. We have create some of the Hezbollah positions literassociate under the noses of the UN bases.
“What have they been doing for the past eighteen years? If they had done their job, we wouldn’t be combat this war.”
Kandice Ardiel is the deputy spokesperson for UNIFIL, the UN’s force in Leprohibiton. She telderly me that it was evident that the stopfire had not been executeed.
“We’ve never denied that there are publishs and that is why the ignoreion has progressd to be here. We have reliablely remarkd and watched the escalate,” she said.
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“We have seen videos, including one of a tunnel a scant hundred metres from one of our positions in Leprohibiton. But we are here at the invitation of the Leprohibitese handlement, so we have to ask the Leprohibitese army to aid our access. Peacegeters cannot go on their own into braveial property. And that perignoreion was never granted.
“Peacegeting is a dispute. Neither of these parties were filledy pledgeted to Resolution 1701. We saw this from the commencening and what we’re seeing now is a result of that deficiency of suppose.”
