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Lebanese army fires shots at Israeli drones in south of the country

This file picture shows an IAI Eitan unmanned reconnaissance aircraft at a base in the Israeli-occupied territories. (Photo by English-language Haaretz daily newspaper)

Lebanese security sources say the country’s air defense units have fired shots at two of three Israeli unmanned aerial vehicles as they were flying in the skies over the country’s southern region near the border with the occupied territories.

The sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the drones were targeted above the village of Adaisseh in the southern province of Nabatieh on Wednesday evening.

The Arabic-language Voice of Lebanon radio station reported that the army fired at the “two drones” after they “violated Lebanon’s airspace at low altitude. The Lebanese gunfire forced the drones to return to Israel.”

Al-Mayadeen television news network said the two “small drones” were flying over the army’s post in Adaisseh. 

 

The development came only a few days after an Israeli drone attack on the southern part of the capital Beirut at the weekend.

On Tuesday, Lebanon’s Higher Defense Council has stated that the Lebanese nation reserves the right to defend the country “by any means necessary” in the wake of the drone strike.

“This is a right that is enshrined in the UN Charter,” the Council, a government body in charge of defense policy, said in a statement on Tuesday, emphasizing that “national unity remains the best weapon in the face of any aggression.”

The meeting was chaired by President Michel Aoun and attended by Prime Minister Saad Hariri, the ministers of defense, interior, foreign affairs and finance, and the heads of security agencies.

“The President underlined the need to defend Lebanon’s sovereignty and territorial integrity because it is a legitimate right,” the statement noted.

Hariri had earlier called upon the United Nations Security Council to pressure Israel not to initiate any action of aggression against Lebanon.

“If Israel’s aggressions escalate, this will have dangerous repercussions on Lebanon and the whole region,” a statement by Hariri's office said.

The Lebanese Hezbollah resistance movement said on Monday that Israel had sent two drones into Lebanon on a bombing mission on the weekend.

According to Hezbollah, the first drone had fallen on a building housing Hezbollah’s media office in Dahieh suburb. The second drone, which appeared to have been sent by Israel to search for the first one, had crashed in an empty plot nearby after being detonated in the air, it added.

Following the drone raids, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah’s secretary general, vowed in a televised speech that fighters of the movement would counter any further violation of the Lebanese airspace by Israeli drones, warning the Tel Aviv regime to immediately halt such breaches.


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