Hezbollah claimed responsibility for the detonation of an improvised explosive device (IED) near an IDF patrol on the border with Lebanon.
But where exactly did this incident occur?
According to the Financial Times (click via Google News):
the IED targeted IDF vehicles in the Shebaa Farms district, an area occupied by the Israeli military.
Meanwhile, The Guardian explains:
The explosion occurred at about 3.15pm local time near the occupied Shebaa farms … Confirming it was behind the attack, Hezbollah said it had set off a large explosive device as an armoured patrol passed in the disputed Shebaa farms area.
As for the UK’s Press Association, it also referred to the area as “disputed.” If that is indeed the case, you would expect a dispute to be between two sides. The Press Association, however, presented only one side:
The officials said the patrol was hit near an Israeli army position in the Kfar Chouba hills that Lebanon says is Lebanese land occupied by Israel.
So what is the context that the above media outlets are missing?
Hezbollah has used the presence of Israeli troops in the area to justify continued attacks after the Jewish state withdrew from south Lebanon in May 2000. …
Israel maintains that the sector is part of the Golan Heights, which it captured from Syria in 1967 and annexed in 1981.
Lebanon also claims sovereignty over the area.
The border between the two countries was set by the United Nations after the Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon after 22 years of occupation.
The exact border was never clearly established, however, because the British and French colonial powers did not decide in 1923 precisely where they felt Lebanon, British-mandated Palestine and Syria intersected.
Syria took advantage of the oversight to extend its domination over the area in 1957, and held it for 10 years.
In 2000, the UN concluded that the Shebaa Farms were Syrian, but Lebanon has since asked the global body to reexamine the issue.
Despite this important background information, it appears that some media are simply too lazy to entertain anything other than framing the story as one of legitimate Hezbollah grievances against Israeli ‘occupiers’ of Lebanese land.
