Gas from Israeli camera poisons Lebanese troops

The Lebanese army is investigating the poisoning of eight soldiers last week after they were exposed to an unknown gas from a recently installed Israeli security camera on the disputed border.

The soldiers were trying to turn the camera away from its view of their country, as they believed Israel had breached Lebanese sovereignty by installing the camera on its territory.

Eight troops spent time in hospital after suffering symptoms including vomiting. Israel later removed the camera.

“The army collected samples of the gas and is investigating the incident,” a Lebanese source told The National.

The source said that they did not know of such an incident happening before. It is common for Israel to install cameras to monitor Lebanese territory, but the cameras are usually on the Israeli side of the border.

Israel also monitors Lebanon with surveillance drones that routinely breach Lebanese airspace.

Lebanon, which has no radar system to detect aircraft and no air-defence system, can do little apart from complain to the UN.

In August, a Lebanese soldier shot at three Israeli drones flying over South Lebanon a few days after an Israeli drone exploded in Hezbollah’s stronghold in south Beirut.

Many areas of the border between Lebanon and Israel, which are still technically at war, remain disputed.

In the absence of an official border, they respect the Blue Line, or line of withdrawal of the Israeli army in 2000, when it left south Lebanon after 22 years of occupation.

A spokesman for the UN Interim Force in Lebanon, which patrols the border region alongside the Lebanese army to monitor the ceasefire, said an incident occurred involving an Israeli camera but did not confirm the gas leak.

The UN force received information on September 25 that the Israeli army had installed a camera at the northern entrance of an unused railway tunnel in Ras Al Naqoura, a Lebanese town near the Blue Line.

“Unifil immediately activated its liaison channels with both the parties in an effort to mitigate the tension between them and resolve the issue in a co-ordinated manner,” UN force spokesman Andrea Tenenti told The National.

“The next morning, on September 26, due to Unifil’s urgent intervention, the Israeli forces informed us that the camera would be removed soon. This was done later the same day.”

Lebanon’s Al Akhbar reported on Wednesday that “after several demands from the Lebanese army for the UN forces to remove the camera”, soldiers tried to block its view of Lebanese territory.

“Pipes near the camera produced smoke of low toxicity that caused eight soldiers to choke and faint,” the newspaper said.

The incident led to “tension on both sides of the border”, which was reduced after Israel removed the camera.

Weapons experts said they doubted the camera was booby-trapped but said it may have contained chemicals to keep animals away.