Israeli troops have fired warning shots near the border with Lebanon in light of a recent operation by the Israeli military to block what it claims are tunnels the Hezbollah resistance movement has dug into the occupied territories.

Lebanon’s official National News Agency reported that Israeli forces had shot in the air across from Meiss Ej Jabal village in the Marjeyoun district of the southern Lebanese province of Nabatieh on Saturday, after they were “surprised” by an army patrol that had been obscured by a thick fog.

The Israeli army, however, claimed that it had opened fire at Hezbollah activists.

On December 4, the Israeli military announced “Operation Northern Shield” against what it claimed were Hezbollah infiltration tunnels.

This picture taken on December 5, 2018 in the southern Lebanese village of Kfar Kila near the border with the occupied territories shows Israeli machinery (top) operating next to the concrete border wall. (Photo by AFP)

Amid Israel’s anti-tunnel operation, Lebanon has lodged a complaint with the United Nations against Israel’s hacking into the country’s telephone network.

Lebanese Ambassador to the UN Amal Mudallali, in a letter sent to the UN Security Council, stated that Beirut condemned in the strongest possible terms the political and diplomatic campaign being waged by the Israeli regime.

“That campaign is being accompanied by a number of extremely serious acts, of which the most recent is that Israel has breached the Lebanese communications grid by hacking into the telephone network and sending recorded messages to peaceable civilian inhabitants of the southern part of the village of Kfar Killa warning them of imminent explosions to take place on Lebanese territory that might put their lives at risk,” the letter said.

It further noted that such Israeli actions constituted a violation of Lebanon's sovereignty.

Mudallali then called on the UN Security Council to “take all measures necessary to confront this systematic campaign being waged by Israel and Israel’s ongoing violations of Lebanese sovereignty, which are a threat to the security and stability of the entire region.”

This is while Israeli Intelligence Minister Yisrael Katz has said that the Israeli military could extend its activities near the border with Lebanon into the Arab country.

“If we think that in order to thwart the tunnels that one needs to operate on the other side - then we will operate on the other side of the border,” Katz told Radio Tel Aviv 102FM.

Israeli army installs motion sensors near Lebanon border

On Friday, an Israeli Caterpillar D9 bulldozer and a hydraulic breaker, protected by two military vehicles and a Merkava main battle tank, dug ground near the southern Lebanese village of Meiss Ej Jabal as experts installed a number of motion sensors in the area.

Lebanese army soldiers and Hezbollah fighters have on occasions dismantled Israeli surveillance devices planted near the country’s border regions with the occupied territories.

Israel has continued to use offensive tactics aimed at creating chaos in Lebanon. It has planted devices not just on Hezbollah’s civil telecommunication networks, but also on its military ones.