BEIRUT: United Nations peacekeepers said on Tuesday they had found around four tonnes of mainly ammonium nitrate explosives this month in a south Lebanon border village under Israeli occupation.

During a “routine route check” near Hula on July 2, “peacekeepers found 385 containers abandoned inside a building, containing approximately 4,000 kilograms of explosive material, consisting mainly of ammonium nitrate compounds”, the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil) said in a statement.

Unifil specialists “later carried out on-site procedures to render the material inert, making it safe and removing the risk it posed”.

A source with knowledge of the matter said the containers had Hebrew writing on them and were “likely used for demolitions”.

Hula is part of a strip of territory running around 10 kilometres deep inside Lebanon along the border where Israeli forces have been operating and have warned residents not to return.

While violence has declined since last month’s US-Iran memorandum on the regional conflict, and a separate framework deal between Lebanon and Israel, Lebanon has reported ongoing Israeli demolitions and detonations of buildings in border villages and towns.

Published in Dawn, July 29th, 2026