An Israeli force crossed the Lebanese border on Wednesday and seized a goat herd belonging to a Lebanese citizen, sparking a protest by villagers, Lebanon's National News Agency reported.

“A force from the enemy's army violated the border and nabbed a flock of goats belonging to the citizen Wissam Abdul Al,” NNA said.

The development prompted residents from the southern border towns of Kfarshouba and Hilta to stage a sit-in outside the post of the Indian U.N. peacekeeping force in the Bustra Farm to press UNIFIL to seek the return of the herd, the agency added.

Earlier, NNA had reported that the Israelis abducted the flock to the occupied Shebaa Farms after the goats crossed the border of the occupied region.

Such incidents are frequent in that border area and the Israeli army sometimes kidnaps the shepherds themselves and frees them after interrogation.

Tensions have recently surged along the Lebanese-Israeli border, especially in Shebaa, after Hizbullah attacked an Israeli patrol in retaliation to Israel's December assassination in Syria of its top operative Samir al-Quntar.

Y.R.

M.T.