UN Security Council urges Israel, Lebanonto show ‘utmost restraint’ after border clash

The UN called on both sides to abide by the deal that ended the last cross-border conflict in 2006.

The Security Council met to discuss the clash, and afterwards Russia's UN ambassador Vitaly Churkin insisted that both sides must "strictly abide by their obligations" under the UN resolution that ended the 2006 conflict.

He added that they must "observe the cessation of hostilities and prevent any further escalation".

The UN statement followed a similar plea from US State Department spokesman PJ Crowley.

"The region has enough tension as it is, the last thing that we want to see is that this incident expand into something more significant," he insisted.

Both sides blamed each other after three Lebanese soldiers, a Lebanese journalist and an Israeli officer died in the fighting.

Tensions were often high along the heavily fortified frontier.

But yesterday’s deaths marked the most serious incident since 2006, when Israel fought a 34-day conflict with the Lebanese Shia militant group Hezbollah.

Although the most recent skirmish involved soldiers from the regular army, Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah warned that his militants would not "stand idle".

The Lebanese army had claimed that Israeli soldiers had crossed the border to uproot a tree which was blocking their view.

Troops had then fired warning shots and Israel had responded with fire from artillery positions and helicopters.

Israel had denied the crossing the border and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that Israel would respond "aggressively" to any attack.

UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon have said that they had seen “no evidence” that Israeli soldiers had crossed into Lebanon.