Lebanon-based terrorist group Hezbollah has set up an observation post under the guise of an environmental advocacy group less than a mile from the Israel-Lebanon border, the Israel Defense Forces said on Monday.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, a senior IDF officer said the outpost, in the village of Al-Adisa, is the sixth such post spotted over the past two years. One photo from the site shows a uniformed man peering through a window with high-tech binoculars.
The officer said the new observation post violates United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the 2006 Second Lebanon War and bans the presence of armed groups south of the Litani River in southern Lebanon. However, since that war, the U.N. has largely turned a blind eye to Hezbollah's violations, which has allowed the group to amass an arsenal believed to include well over 100,000 missiles and rockets aimed at Israel.
The officer said Hezbollah was using a tree-planting campaign by Green Without Borders, a Lebanese nongovernmental organization, as a cover for its activity along the border to gather intelligence on Israeli troops. The organization has acknowledged its affiliation with the terrorist group but claims its purpose on the border is purely environmental.
The officer also said the IDF discovered five Hezbollah posts in 2017 in breach of the U.N. resolution.
"We haven't seen any Hezbollah arms yet [in the new post], but we can see military infrastructure and it's clear this is part of extensive activity in southern Lebanon and in Lebanon as a whole that is a threat to the IDF and to Israel," the officer said.
"This is, of course, a buildup that we cannot tolerate. Green Without Borders has no forest rangers, because there are no forests in this area. Hezbollah is using the organization to establish observation posts close to the border with the goal of gathering intelligence on IDF troops."
The officer said the observation posts are constantly monitored by the IDF.
"They are manned and have reconnaissance equipment. Their activity is not even remotely related to protecting the environment," he said.
"Hezbollah thinks the IDF is not aware of its activities and has stopped the U.N. from carrying out its mission because it claims this is private property. The U.N. is trying to enforce the resolution and we are applying pressure to do so. When we give the U.N. information, it is duty-bound to act."
Andrea Tenenti, a spokesman for the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon, which is tasked with enforcing the cease-fire, said the peacekeepers have "not observed any unauthorized armed persons" at the position and the organization "continues to monitor activities closely," including those of the environmental group.
The IDF Spokesperson's Unit also issued a statement.
"Hezbollah is violating the language of Resolution 1701, which prohibits the presence of any armed group south of the Litani River. It is patrolling along the border with armed personnel and has been establishing military infrastructure along the border, under the guise of a fictitious environmental group. It has also been engaged in a military buildup in Shiite villages in southern Lebanon. In 2017, five observation posts were spotted, and now another post has been discovered, and the goal of those positions is to bolster the organization's intelligence reach. The IDF routinely monitors Hezbollah's activities," the statement said.
