BEIRUT (AP) – Lebanon will file an urgent complaint with the United Nations against Israel’s daily violations of its airspace amid intensified reconnaissance of drones and simulated attacks across the country, the president’s office said on Tuesday. .
President Michel Aoun called for condemnation of “aggression and violations of Lebanon’s sovereignty” by Israel and the UN resolution that brought an end to hostilities between the two countries after their last total conflict in 2006.
The two countries are technically still at war and Lebanon has repeatedly complained about Israel’s violations of its airspace and water.
Israel’s military and foreign ministry did not immediately respond to questions seeking comment.
In the past few weeks, Israeli military jets have flown several low-altitude flights over the capital and other major cities, causing nervousness among civilians who are not strangers to the conflict. Warplanes appeared in the skies of Beirut, causing a lot of noise, even on Christmas Eve. The flights terrified city dwellers who recently survived a major port explosion.
Reconnaissance drones sometimes remain in Lebanese airspace for 24 hours at a time, said a Lebanese military official who spoke on condition of anonymity, according to regulations.
Israel rarely comments on these missions, but Israeli officials said overflights are necessary because the powerful Lebanese militant in Hezbollah is violating the 2006 UN resolution that prevents it from increasing its military capabilities and operating near the Israeli border.
Many of these attacks are often to carry out attacks in neighboring Syria, where Israel targets Iranian-backed militias and posts for the Lebanese group Hezbollah fighting alongside Syrian troops in that country’s civil war.
Israel expressed concern and acted to prevent an increase in the Iranian and Hezbollah presence near its borders, including a stock of precision-guided missiles.
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, in a year-end interview, said Israel’s efforts to restrict its group’s ability to acquire these missiles had failed, adding that it now has twice what it had last year.
Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz visited a base in the occupied Golan Heights along the border with Syria on Tuesday. Israel is believed to have carried out a series of air strikes in recent weeks against targets connected to Iran and Hezbollah in Syria.
“We remain on guard across our borders. We act and will continue to act against anyone who tries to challenge us from near or far, ”said Gantz.
Frequent Israeli flights over Lebanese airspace take place at a time of great tension in the region in the last days of President Donald Trump’s administration.
Many fear that the retaliation for the death of Iranian commander Qassem Soleimani in the United States last year could occur before Trump leaves office, or the conflict erupts to disrupt the efforts of Joe Biden’s new government to negotiate with Iran.
The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon says Israel enters Lebanese airspace daily, violating UN resolutions and the country’s sovereignty.
Between June and October 2020, UNIFIL recorded a daily average of 12.63 airspace violations, totaling 61 hours and 51 minutes of flight time, a significant increase from the previous four months. So drones were responsible for most of the violations.
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Associated Press writer Josef Federman in Jerusalem contributed to this report.