The security cabinet approved Sunday a defense establishment recommendation to withdraw Israel Defense Forces troops from the Lebanese side of the divided border village of Ghajar, and hand over responsibility for the area to United Nations peacekeepers.

The withdrawal from the divided border village would complete the IDF pullout from Lebanese territory occupied during the second Lebanon war, which ended in August.

After the cabinet meeting, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni explained the withdrawal has been under discussion for some time, and that the decision is no way connected to the current governmental crisis in Lebanon, nor to the huge protests this weekend that called for Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora's resignation.

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The cabinet also discussed a proposal to allow residents of the Lebanese side who hold an Israeli identification card to move to the Israeli side of the village.

Until 1967, Ghajar was a Syrian village on the Syrian-Lebanese border. It was captured by Israel when the IDF took the Golan Heights during the Six Day War.

Apparently the northern part of the village was then already inside Lebanese territory, but it was only when Israel withdrew from Lebanon in May 2000, that the UN drew the international border between Israel and Lebanon.

It turned out this "Blue Line" runs precisely through the middle of Ghajar at its narrowest point, cutting it in two, with the northern part inside Lebanon, and the southern part inside Israel.

In November 2005, Hezbollah staged a large-scale attack on northern Israel in a failed attempt to abduct IDF troops stationed in Ghajar.