The Lebanese army stepped up its presence in the southern border Friday and arrested six armed Palestinians in the Western Bekaa, the clearest signal yet that the authorities will not permit “unauthorized” and potentially destabilizing cross-border attacks on Israel.
The six Palestinians were arrested in a combined army and intelligence operation at Horsh Nabaa near Marj Zahrour in the Western Bekaa. Nine Katyusha rockets were fired from Marj Zahrour on Thursday night, striking Israeli-occupied Mount Hermon. There was no claim of responsibility for the attack, The Daily Star reported.
A senior military source said the Palestinians were caught with a Katyusha.
“Marj Zahour was a Palestinian position before 1982,” the source said. “The Palestinians went to fire a Katyusha across the border either by themselves or by means of a timer.”
Initial reports said the fighters were members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine General Command, headed by Ahmed Jibril, a former Syrian Army officer. The Damascus-based group, which comprises Lebanese as well as Palestinians, has close operational links with Hizbullah. But Jumaa Abdullah, a representative of the PFLP-GC in Beirut, denied the arrested Palestinians were members of his group. “We don’t know which faction they belong to,” he said.
The military source said the Palestinians were “disorganized” individuals.
A report of three Palestinians being detained near Tyre in possession of Katyusha launch timers appeared to have been muddled with the arrest of the six fighters in Marj Zahrour, the source said. But he confirmed that several other Palestinians had been detained on suspicion by the army in the past few days.
The source said that the 1,000-strong joint force of Internal Security Forces and military police along the border had increased “security and intelligence measures to foil any attempts to turn the southern front into a mess and an arena for anyone to fire rockets into Israel.”
Several checkpoints were set up in the border area during the morning. (Albawaba.com)
