Israeli spying system discovered by the Lebanese military in 2011. (Photo: AP/Lebanese Army)
Amidst weeks of observing lo- hanging drones over Lebanon, today Lebanese state media reported that Israel fired missiles into Southern Lebanon last week, destroying an Israeli spying device after Hezbollah discovered it. The blast occurred between al-Zrariyeh and Tair Filsay, near the Litani River. Following the attack Hezbollah confirmed the air strike. From Al-Akhbar English:
A brief Hezbollah statement confirmed an explosion hit one of its communication lines in south Lebanon, but said it was not an airstrike, nor did they state if an Israeli tapping device was its target.
‘The enemy planted this explosive device which was exploded remotely on the communication line that belongs to Hezbollah,’ the statement said.
Since 1967 Israel has occupied territory in Southern Lebanon annexed during the Six Days War. Additional territory was taken after 2006 to create a United Nations (UN) buffer zone, which Israel also does not recognize as Lebanese territory. Despite Israel’s separate understanding of where Lebanon ends and Israel begins, last week’s air strike was unequivocally inside of sovereign Lebanon. And last year Israel also fired missiles into Southern Lebanon, again to decimate wireless tapping devices after Hezbollah had discovered them.
Meanwhile, Lebanese sources are also reporting that since last week Israeli fighter jets have violated Lebanese air space with aviation drills; 10 planes were spotted on Friday circling over cities in the Southern Lebanon. The fighter jets are in breach of UN Resolution 1701, the 2006 ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hezbollah. Haaretz reports that from 2006 to 2009 Israel violated Lebanese sovereignty 7,000 times.
Q: … 10 [IAF] planes were spotted on Friday circling over cities in the Southern Lebanon.
R: They [IAF] used to fly through the sound barrier over [Syria's] Assad’s palace back in the day. I wonder why they stopped doing that …
Syrian Air Defense Force:
Why does Lebanon and/or Hezbollah still not have Anti-Aircraft missile systems capable of taking out intruding Israeli planes?
Wouldn’t that solve a lot of problems?
Hizbollah does have anti-aircraft missiles. To use them on small incidents means to escalate the situation into a full-blown war and to reveal to the israelis EXACTLY what weapons the hizb has. In other words, they’re saving their fireworks for the big finale.
Why does Lebanon and/or Hezbollah still not have Anti-Aircraft missile systems capable of taking out intruding Israeli planes?
During the 2006 war in Lebanon, Israel bombed and killed UN observers. The US blocked Security Council resolutions for a cease fire until, as Secretary Rice claimed, the root causes of the conflict could be addressed. The Israeli hasbara blamed the victims as usual, which included a lot of propaganda about the “ineffective” UN peacekeepers. link to news.bbc.co.uk
Afterward several members of the Security Council made statements to the press about the need to change the mandate to allow the use of force against Hezbollah. But when the UNIFIL commander suggested that he would use the proposed powers to begin shooting down Israeli aircraft if they continued illegal incursions into Lebanese airspace, Israel and its supporters quickly changed their tune and launched a campaign to insure that the peacekeepers mandate would not allow that sort of response.
Peretz: French UNIFIL commanders say will shoot at IAF overflights
link to haaretz.com
UN ‘poses no threat to Israeli aircraft’
link to ft.com
Yes indeed, one of the UN blue helmets in Lebanon at the time is Australian and it was her base that was bombed by Israel, one of her friends and colleagues killed. Covered by this episode of Australian Story in 2010 (she suffered an injury during the evacuation and that is the crux of the story, but the Israeli attack is covered):
link to abc.net.au
ABC Oz used to geo-block but I just tested this now with a VPN service and it appeared to work with a US IP address.
Part Two of that Australian Story – Israel’s attack on the UN base at Khiam in Lebanon:
link to abc.net.au
*and correction: four of her colleagues, not one, killed.
They’re still scared of hezbollah.
The only thing Israel is scared of is peace.
I agree that Israel is scared of peace, but that’s not all…
This has happened before. Actually, Israel’s espionage net in Lebanon seems to have been taken apart about a year ago.
LOL! Looks like the hizb had discovered the ‘spy box’ location and for some time had been feeding the racist zionists with fake intel.
That’s heart-warming — and possible. The Israelis are often tripped up by their own arrogance.
7,000 times Israel has violated Lebanese territory. Holy s**t that’s outrageous. You would have though that Israel would have learned its lesson from 1967 6-day war about what happens when who take you trackers to plow the fields in the Syrian Golan. These ziobots are out to grab the entire Fertile Crescent.
Well, to be fair, the ‘Ziobots’ will just keep wanting to grab more. There’s no particular over-arching plan to it all. It’s just a visceral response to the existence of the outside world.
They have to be at war with their neighbors. If their neighbors can’t drive them on to the defensive, they will go over to the attack.
In defense of this, I’ll note that it seems to me that as the Palestinians in the West Bank have grown more quiescent, the settlers and the IDF have grown more, not less, belligerent. I don’t think even submission is an option when it comes to the Zionists. They really do need to grind their boot into someone’s face, at all times. It’s part of what Israel is all about.
Violating “Israeli” air space one would get shot down even if you are a civilian aircraft so surely what is good for the goose is good for the gander.