Israel and Lebanese forces clash on Israel-Lebanon border, UN calls exchange of fire "serious"

Link

From the article

Israeli and Lebanese forces have exchanged fire on their border.
Israel says its troops returned fire after being fired on while searching an area where explosives had been found. Lebanese officials confirmed the clash.

No casualties were reported. The UN force in southern Lebanon described the incident as serious.

It is the first such armed incident on the border since Israel's 34-day campaign against Hezbollah guerrillas ended in August last year.

Since that conflict the border between Israel and Lebanon has been policed by a combination of Lebanese government soldiers and UN troops.

From the article:

According to Israeli reports, Lebanese troops fired when an Israeli patrol crossed a security fence near the Israeli village of Avivim.

"We called for them to stop firing, they shot at us and we returned fire," an Israeli source told the Reuters news agency.


Israel insisted that the patrol had not actually crossed into Lebanese territory.

Lebanese officials said the Israelis were across the border.

"An Israeli bulldozer crossed into south Lebanon tonight. Our forces opened fire at it. It pulled back and there was a brief exchange of fire," an army official told Reuters.

If this is about clearing mines or bombs on the border, why did Israel not ask the Lebanese, or even have the UN as a trilateral partner in this?

The Lebanese state the Israeli forces entered Lebanese territory.

The Israelis have not denied this....

There was no casualties as the link stated, otherwise this could have got worse.

It just reminds us all, if we need reminding, that the situation is unsurprisingly tense there.