IDF hands UNIFIL security responsibility near divided border village

Israel on Tuesday transferred responsibility for security of the area north of a divided border village to the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).

The area in question has technically been under the jurisdiction of the Israel Defense Forces, but no troops are currently operating in the area.

The IDF withdrew from other areas it occupied during the war in early October, but remained in Ghajar, a village that is half in Israel and half in Lebanon.

A full IDF troop withdrawal from Ghajar would put Israeli forces behind the UN-demarcated Blue Line bordering the two countries for the first time since the summer war between Israel and Hezbollah guerrillas.

Major General Alain Pellegrini made the announcement after a meeting with Lebanese and IDF officers at the UN peacekeeping headquarters in the southern Lebanese town of Naqoura.

"It was agreed that the Israeli Defense Forces will withdraw their forces from most of the surrounding area of Ghajar village today," the UN Interim Force in Lebanon, called UNIFIL, said in a statement.

The IDF will be present in part of the Lebanese section of the village for the near future, but Pellegrini said he hoped "we will reach an agreement very soon for full IDF withdrawal from Lebanese territory."

	UNIFIL Chief Alain Pellegrini (Reuters)