Lebanon’s foreign ministry says it has lodged a complaint with the United Nations over Israel’s alleged spraying of the herbicide glyphosate in Lebanese territory near the border earlier this year, AFP reports.

In a statement, the ministry said it had sent a letter to the UN Security Council and the UN secretary-general this week to complain about the incident, which occurred in February, a month before the latest Israel-Hezbollah war erupted on March 2.

The ministry said “laboratory tests and chemical analyses carried out on soil samples” in the south Lebanon border villages of Aita al-Shaab, Ras Naqura and Dhayra “confirmed the use of glyphosate at high levels of concentration”.

It said the levels “greatly exceed” those usually found in agricultural areas after regular use by farmers. The statement said the complaint was based on a report from Lebanon’s government-linked National Council for Scientific Research (CNRS).

At the time, the UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon said Israel had notified it of its plans to spray a “non-toxic chemical substance” near the border and had warned peacekeepers to take shelter.