Israeli soldiers fired warning shots into the air Sunday to disperse a column of cars containing Lebanese protesting Israeli occupation of the farms of Shebaa, an Israeli military spokesman said.
The convoy of 50 cars, which had breached the ceasefire line between Lebanon and Israel to enter the area of the farms, was turned back by the shots, the spokesman said.
Last Sunday, another 200 Lebanese crossed the line to demand the return of the farms to Lebanese sovereignty.
The farms of Shebaa are situated on the slopes of Mount Hermon, where the Lebanese, Israeli and Syrian borders converge.
They were captured by Israel during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war during the same operation in which the Golan Heights were captured from Syria. Israel maintains their eventual return to Lebanon must be agreed within the context of peace talks with Syria and not with the Israeli pullout from southern Lebanon in May after a 22-year occupation.
United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan has said the farms of Shebaa constitute territory covered by UN Security Council resolutions 242 and 338, which call for Israel to withdraw from territory occupied in 1967, and not resolution 425, which is related to a demand for Israel to withdraw from southern Lebanon -- JERUSALEM(AFP)
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