Two Israeli soldiers were wounded Tuesday, one of them seriously, in a land mine explosion on the border with Lebanon, the army said, days after Israel reported a militant infiltration from there.
A statement from the army said the mine exploded on the Blue Line, the frontier demarcated by the United Nations in 2000 after Israeli troops withdrew from southern Lebanon.
It said the blast occurred during “routine engineering activity in an enclave in northern Israel,” adding that the soldiers were taken to hospital for treatment.
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Al-Manar, the TV channel of Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement, said the mine was an Israeli one.
The Israeli army could not confirm.
On Wednesday, the army announced the possible involvement of Hezbollah in an incident that saw Israeli forces shoot dead a suspect with an explosive belt, two days after an explosion wounded a civilian in northern Israel.
An initial inquiry suggested the suspect had crossed into Israel from Lebanon in recent days, the army said.
The UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) said on Thursday it had “not observed any crossing of the Blue Line in recent days.”
On Monday, the army said it ruled out the option the suspect used a tunnel to cross into Israel, noting they had figured out “how he crossed the fence” but providing no further details.
According to military radio, the suspect had used a ladder to climb over the fence.
The incident came with tensions already high over violence which has worsened in the Israeli-occupied West Bank this year.
There has been no suicide attack targeting Israelis since a bombing in Jerusalem almost seven years ago that wounded 21 people.
Israel and Hezbollah fought a devastating war in 2006 after the group captured two Israeli soldiers.
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