Lebanon Prime Minister Najib Mikati speaks during a plenary session at the COP28 UN Climate Summit, on Dec 2, 2023, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. (PHOTO / AP)

BEIRUT - Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati said on Tuesday that his country will negotiate the disputed land borders with Israel through the United Nations in the coming months to ensure greater stability in the region.

"In the coming months, negotiations will be held through the UN for greater stability on the Lebanese southern border, starting with completing the implementation of UN Resolution 1701 and reaching an agreement, through the UN, on the points of contention on the border with Israel," Mikati said during his meeting in Beirut with Joseph Habis, the dean of the Honorary Consular Corps in Lebanon.

Mikati said such an initiative would "play a major role in sparing Lebanon from any war which we do not know where it will lead," adding he hoped Lebanon would achieve total border stability in three months.

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The Blue Line, established by the UN in 2000, spans 120 kilometers and serves to verify the withdrawal of Israeli forces from southern Lebanon. It is a temporary demarcation line until the two countries officially establish their land borders.

The Lebanon-Israel border has largely remained quiet since July 2006 until Oct 8, 2023, when Lebanese Shiite armed group Hezbollah fired dozens of rockets toward Shebaa Farms in support of the Hamas attacks on Israel the previous day, prompting the Israeli forces to respond by firing heavy artillery toward southeastern Lebanon.

On Nov 24, Hamas and Israel agreed on a humanitarian truce, leading to one week of cautious calm in southern Lebanon, but confrontations resumed on Dec 1 after the collapse of the truce.

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A picture taken from the Israeli side of border with Lebanon shows Israeli shelling around the southern Lebanese village of Aita al-Shaab on Dec 5, 2023. (PHOTO / AFP)

Soldier killed in border clash

On Tuesday, a Lebanese soldier was killed, and three others were wounded by the Israeli army on the hills of al-Owaidah in southeastern Lebanon, while three other people were killed in southern Lebanon, the Lebanese army said in a statement.

The statement showed that a military center in al-Owaidah in the southern village of Taybeh was bombarded by the Israeli enemy, leaving one soldier killed and three others injured.

The casualties resulted from the Israeli bombing of an army military center in al-Owaidah in the southern village of Taybeh, according to the statement. The injured were transported to a hospital to receive medical care.

Meanwhile, Lebanese military sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Xinhua that a Hezbollah fighter was killed in an Israeli airstrike carried out by a drone in southwest Lebanon.

Sources also told Xinhua that a Syrian worker was killed and two of his family members were injured in a poultry farm located between the village Arnoun and the Khardali Bridge on Nahr Al-Litani. Ten Syrians were rescued from the poultry farm.

The sources indicated that Israeli drones and warplanes carried out nine raids on the villages of Yater, Aita al-Shaab, Naqoura, and Ramyah in southwest Lebanon. Israeli airstrikes also destroyed five houses and caused damage to 15 others in the southeast village of Kfarchouba.

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Meanwhile, Hezbollah said its fighters targeted several Israeli sites in Al-Bayad, Jal Al-Alam, Al-Dhahira, Birkat Risha, Dahr al-Jamal, Zebdine, and Paranit barracks, in addition to hitting a gathering of Israeli soldiers in the Al-Manara settlement.

The recent clashes between Hezbollah and Israel have so far killed 131 people on the Lebanese side, including 90 Hezbollah fighters and a Lebanese army soldier, according to security sources.