Israelis fire warning shots near gate in southern Lebanon

The students were touring an area near the Gate of Hassan, at the edge of the village of Shebaa, the police said. Israeli troops overlooking the gate fired four times, they said. Shebaa Farms have been occupied by Israeli troops since 1967.

On June 24, four Jordanians were wounded in Israeli gunfire while they were throwing stones towards Israeli soldiers near the Fatima Gate in southern Lebanon.

Since Israel withdrew from southern Lebanon on May 24, the gates at the Lebanese-Israeli borders have become sites for Lebanese, Palestinian and Jordanian demonstrators. On several occasions Israeli troops have fired towards the crowds, killing at least three people and wounding several others.

Meanwhile, two Lebanese men were killed and two others were wounded when their car triggered a landmine in the area of Jbaa in the Iqlim al Tuffah region, east of the port city of Sidon. Maher Dia, 29 and Mohammed Mahmoudi, 22, died instantly while Ali Farahat and Kassem Sabbah, who received serious injuries, were transfered to a nearby hospital in the market-town of Nabatiyeh.

The mine was believed left by the Israeli-backed South Lebanon Army (SLA) during the 22-year-old Israeli occupation to Lebanon. An estimated 130,000 mines have been left behind from the Israeli occupation across southern Lebanon. A Ukranian battalion affiliated by the United Nations Interim Forces in Southern Lebanon (UNIFIL) is working on defusing them.

Since the Israeli withdrawal, at least nine people have died and more than 30 others have been wounded in mine explosions.

(la/dpa)