Lebanon army shoots at Israeli drone and Israeli army threatens to set Lebanon back 50 years

The Lebanese army said on Friday its troops shot at an Israeli drone that crossed into Lebanon’s southern airspace, with a security source saying the drone was not brought down.

Israel regularly flies military aircraft in Lebanon’s airspace without permission but it is rare for troops to target them.

The Lebanese army statement said a patrol was inspecting a separate incident in the south when a “drone belonging to the Israeli enemy violated Lebanese airspace,” prompting troops to begin shooting in its direction.

A Lebanese security source told Reuters they did not shoot it down.

The Israeli military said it was not aware of such reports.

Lebanon and Israel agreed in October to delineate their maritime border after years of US-mediated talks. The land boundary between the two remains disputed.

In December, a United Nations peacekeeper was killed when his vehicle was fired on in Lebanon’s south, where security is controlled by powerful anti-Israel party Hezbollah

Israel threatens to set Lebanon back 50 years

The outgoing chief of staff of the Israeli army, Aviv Kohavi, threatened on Friday to set Lebanon back 50 years if a new war breaks out between the two countries.

The Hezbollah group knows that, if another conflict breaks out, that nation will be hit in an unprecedented way, as they never experienced before, the military officer, who will leave his post soon, in an interview with The Jerusalem Post said. 

“Hezbollah and [Sheikh Hassan] ( Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah) know that Lebanon will be hit in an unprecedented way, which it has never experienced in its history,” Kohavi said. “A third Lebanon war will see a powerful attack that they have never experienced. They know this.”

‘The scope of the targets we have today, as a result of the major changes we made in intelligence, is unprecedented,’ he estimated. 

Stretching from the southern border to Beirut, and from the Mediterranean Sea to the Bekaa Valley in the east, that country is covered with thousands and thousands of targets, he stressed.

Despite international criticism, Israel invaded the neighboring country in 1978 and 1982 on the grounds of fighting the Palestine Liberation Organization, then led by Yasser Arafat. 

After 18 years of presence in southern Lebanon, the army left the occupied territory in May 2000 due to the numerous casualties and economic losses caused by Hezoulah. 

In 2006 Tel Aviv again attacked the Iranian backed militant group in an air and ground operation that devastated the country . The campaign caused the death of more than 1200 Lebanese mostly civilians and 43 Israelis mostly military . 

Arab News / News Agencies