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Beirut (AP) – Israeli military jets performed several low-flying flights over Beirut, while reconnaissance drones also buzzed on Sunday in what has become a daily occurrence.
Israel regularly violates Lebanon’s airspace, often to launch attacks in neighboring Syria. On Christmas Eve, Israeli jets flew low at night, terrorizing Beirut residents who are no strangers to such flights. They were followed by reported Israeli attacks in Syria.
The frequency of low-flying fighter jets over the capital has intensified over the past two weeks, making residents nervous as tensions in the region run high in the final days of President Donald Trump’s administration.
“When the drone takes off, the fighters come. When the fighters take off, the drones return. They’ve seen us in our PJs, filmed us in our PJs, and watched us in our PJs. Now what, ”Twitter user Areej_AAH joked.
“Of all the panics I’ve experienced in life in Beirut, the panic associated with the Israeli fighter jets flying so low in Beirut is very special,” tweeted Rudeynah Baalbaky, who said it brought back memories of the war with Israel in 2006.
Israel rarely comments on these reports.
Many fear conflicts could erupt in the area before Trump leaves office in retaliation for the US assassination of Iranian commander Qassem Soleimani in Iraq last year, or to reverse the efforts of the incoming Joe Biden administration to negotiate with Iran. suppress.
On Friday, the Lebanese army registered an Israeli flight that took nearly six hours in the south of the country.
A Twitter account tracking aircraft movements in the Middle East, Intel_Sky, has recorded dozens of Israeli jets flying over Lebanon since the beginning of the year, including mock attacks. Intel_Sky called Sunday’s flights “mock attacks.”
At one point this summer, the Lebanese military said Israel had violated its airspace nearly 30 times in two days by flying reconnaissance drones and jets into Lebanese territory.
The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon says Israel enters Lebanese airspace on a daily basis in violation of UN resolutions and the country’s sovereignty.
Between June and October 2020, UNIFIL recorded an average of 12.63 airspace violations daily, totaling 61 hours and 51 minutes of flight time, a significant increase from the previous four months. Drones were responsible for about 95% of the violations, 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 faced a series of clashes, including a full-scale war in 2006.
Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, said in a year-end interview that Israel’s efforts to curb its group’s ability to acquire precision guided missiles have failed. He boasted that Hezbollah now has twice as many such missiles as it did last year.
Israel has expressed concern in recent months that Hezbollah is trying to set up manufacturing facilities to make precision guided missiles.