“Israel” expells four Lebanese asylum seekers: police

“Israel” expelled Wednesday four Lebanese who had secretly crossed during the night into the Jewish state to seek asylum, police said.

An “Israeli” military jeep dropped the four in a deserted border region, just ouside the disputed Shibaa Farms, from where they walked toward the village of Shibaa where they were seized by Lebanese police, they said.

They were identified as Sandid Amasha, 22, Akram Saleh Hamed, 27, Hassan Kamal Shehaib, 27, and Wassim Qassem Ghasham, 36.

The four had requested asylum in “Israel” after crossing into the Jewish state late Tuesday, according to the “Israeli” army.

The four, from the town of Hasbaya in southern Lebanon, made a risky entrance into “Israel” over the line of control with Syria by Mount Hermon, near Lebanon, they said.

Lebanese security sources said the four were former members of the South Lebanon Army (SLA), “Israel’s” proxy militia during its 22-year occupation of southern Lebanon until its troop withdrawal in May 2000.

Three of them - Amasha, Hamed and Shehaib - had recently completed terms of between two months and four months in jail in Lebanon for collaboration with the enemy, they said.

The fourth was awaiting trial on the same charges.

When the “Israeli” army pulled out of Lebanon, about 6,000 Lebanese collaborators left the country in fear of retaliation from the local population.

But several hundred of them have now returned to Lebanon and more than 3,000 have been put on trial in Beirut for collaborating with the “Israeli” enemy.

AFP, 6-6-2001.