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Beirut (AP) – Israeli military aircraft carried out several low-flying flights over Beirut, as reconnaissance drones also buzzed overhead on Sunday in what happened daily.
Israel regularly violates Lebanon airspace, often to carry out attacks in neighboring Syria. On Christmas Eve, Israeli planes flew low until late at night, terrorizing Beirut residents who are no strangers to such flights. They were followed by reported Israeli strikes in Syria.
The frequency of low-flying warplanes over the capital has increased over the past two weeks, making residents cringe because tensions in the last days of President Donald Trump’s government are high in the region.
‘When the drone leaves, the warplanes arrive. When the warplanes leave, the drones return. They saw us in our PJs, filmed us in our PJs and observed us in our PJs. Now what, ”said Twitter user Areej_AAH.
“Of all the kinds of panic I have experienced in life in Beirut, the panic associated with the Israeli warplanes flying so low in Beirut is very special,” tweeted Rudeynah Baalbaky, who said it was reminiscent of the war in 2006 with Israel.
Israel rarely comments on these reports.
Many fear that conflict could erupt in the region before Trump leaves office in retaliation for the US assassination of Iranian Commander Qassem Soleimani in Iraq last year, or the efforts of Joe Biden’s incoming government to negotiate with Iran again.
On Friday, the Lebanese army recorded an Israeli flight that lasted nearly six hours in the south of the country.
A Twitter account following the movement of planes in the Middle East, Intel_Sky, has recorded dozens of Israeli planes flying over Lebanon, including mock attacks, since the beginning of the year. Intel_Sky called Sunday’s flights ‘spot spot’.
At one point during the summer, the Lebanese army said that Israel had violated its airspace almost thirty times within two days and brought reconnaissance drones and planes to Lebanon.
The United Nations’ interim force in Lebanon says Israel is entering Lebanese airspace daily in violation of UN resolutions and the country’s sovereignty.
Between June and October 2020, UNIFIL recorded a daily average of 12.63 violations in the airspace, amounting to 61 hours and 51 minutes of flight time, a significant increase over the previous four months. Drones accounted for about 95% of the offenses, UNIFIL said.
Israel and Lebanon are technically at war. Hezbollah, the powerful Lebanese militant group backed by Iran, is a sworn enemy of Israel and the two have had a series of confrontations, including a full-scale war in 2006.
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said in a year-end interview that Israel’s efforts to curb its group’s ability to acquire precision-guided missiles had failed. He boasted that Hezbollah now has twice as many such missiles as last year.
Israel has in recent months expressed concern that Hezbollah is trying to set up production facilities to make precision-guided missiles.