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Israeli surveillance drones violate Lebanese airspace over two dozen times

This file picture shows an Israeli Eitan unmanned aerial vehicle. (Photo by Ynet news website)

Lebanon says Israeli reconnaissance drones have entered the country’s airspace and flown over the southern parts of the Arab country more than two dozen times in flagrant violation of a UN Security Council resolution.

The Lebanese Army said in a statement that the unmanned aerial aircraft crossed into Lebanese skies at around 5:50 a.m. local time (0250 GMT) on Friday and left at around 12 p.m. They hovered over southern Lebanon and conducted 20 missions.

The statement added that Israeli aircraft violated Lebanese airspace 9 times on Saturday.

All violations were in a circular flight format and are being monitored in coordination with the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), it said.

“Enemy forces have flown unmanned air vehicles with observational purposes, and flown them over the southern Hula province," Lebanon's official National News Agency reported.

Lebanon's government, Hezbollah resistance movement and UNIFIL have repeatedly condemned Israel’s overflights, saying they are in clear violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701 and the country's sovereignty. 

UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which brokered a ceasefire in the war Israel launched against Lebanon in 2006, calls on Tel Aviv to respect Beirut's sovereignty and territorial integrity. 

In 2009, Lebanon filed a complaint with the UN, presenting over 7,000 documents pertaining to Israeli violations of the Lebanese territory.

On August 24 last year, two Israeli drones crashed in the southern neighborhood of the Lebanese capital Beirut.

Hezbollah said at the time that the first drone had fallen on a building, housing Hezbollah’s media office in Dahiyeh 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 exploding in the air, it added.

Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said the following day that his fellow fighters would counter any further violation of Lebanese airspace by Israel's unmanned aerial vehicles, warning the Tel Aviv regime to immediately cease such breaches. 

“Hezbollah will endeavor to down all Israeli drones, which may violate Lebanon’s airspace,” he said in a televised speech at the time.


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