Israel opens new front against Lebanon, with two drones hitting Hezbollah targets in Beirut - Zionist entity now bombing 4 ME countries UPDATES

RFE/RL
Sun, 25 Aug 2019 08:14 UTC

File photo: Israeli drones dropping tear gas against Palestinian protesters last year

Lebanon's military says two Israeli drones hit Hizballah's stronghold in south Beirut, while the Iran-backed Shi'ite movement says one of the aircraft damaged its media center.

The two aircraft violated Lebanese airspace at dawn over the southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital, an army statement said on August 25, adding: "The first fell while the second exploded in the air causing material damage."

Prime Minister Saad Hariri called it a "blatant attack on Lebanon's sovereignty" and said this "new aggression" represents a threat to regional stability.

A Hizballah spokesman, Mohamed Afif, said that one of the two drones was rigged with explosives and "exploded causing huge damage to the media center. Hizballah did not shoot down any drone," Afif said.

Israeli officials did not comment on the incident, which came hours after Israel said it had struck Iranian forces in neighboring Syria to prevent a pending attack "using killer drones."

One of the two sites in Beirut targeted by bombs dropped from Israeli drones

The Israeli military said the August 24 strikes targeted Iran's elite Quds Force in Aqraba, southeast of Damascus.

"Iran has no immunity anywhere. Our forces operate in every sector against the Iranian aggression," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tweeted.

Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) commander Mohsen Rezaei denied that Iranian targets had been hit, the semiofficial ILNA news agency reported.

Israel has carried out hundreds of air strikes in Syria against what it describes as Iranian targets and those of allied militias, including Hizballah.

Iran, along with Russia, has given Syrian President Bashar al-Assad crucial backing throughout his country's civil war that began with a government crackdown on protesters in March 2011.

Comment: From RT 25/8/2019: Lebanese PM accuses Israel of 'open attack' on sovereignty

Israeli drone flights were "an open attack on Lebanese sovereignty" and an assault on UN Resolution 1701, which ended the 2006 Israel-Lebanon war, Hariri said on Sunday.

Hariri called the drone incursion a "threat to regional stability and an attempt to increase tensions."

He said there's a heavy presence of planes in the airspace over Beirut and its suburbs, adding he will consult with Lebanese President Michel Aoun on what could be done to repel the "new aggression."

Separately, Israeli combat aircraft have reportedly flown mock sorties over the Lebanese city of Sidon. Local media described warplanes flying at low altitude over the country's third largest city, which lies about 40km south of Beirut.

From Sputnik, 25/8/2019: Israeli fighter jets fly over Lebanon after drones crash in Beirut

A group of Israeli fighter jets have conducted an flyover of Beirut and southern Lebanon following a mysterious crash of alleged Israeli drones in the southern outskirts of the Lebanese capital, an informed source at the Beirut International Airport said on Sunday.

"Four Israeli Air Force aircraft invaded Lebanese airspace. We saw them flying over Beirut and southern Lebanon. Having made a number of maneuvers, they left Lebanese airspace", the source said.

From Sputnik, 25/8/2019: Nasrallah denounces Israeli drone attack in Beirut, vows to confront such incidents in future

Hassan Nasrallah, the secretary-general of the Lebanese Hezbollah movement, said on Sunday that the Israeli drone attack is the first dangerous incident and breach of rules between the two countries since August 2006. He went on to say that one of the drones that crashed over the Lebanese capital was on a "suicide mission".

While Nasrallah stated that Hezbollah didn't down the two crashed drones on the night between 24 and 25 August, he vowed that the movement would "do everything to prevent" such attacks in the future, saying that the time when Israel could bomb Lebanon "is over". The Hezbollah leader warned the Israeli military stationed at the country's border with Lebanon of an imminent response to the drone attack.

Nasrallah said in his statement that the group had entered a new phase in its conflict with Israel, vowing to retaliate for the deaths of two Hezbollah members in an IAF strike in Syria that took place on the same night.

Nasrallah also called "The latest Israeli development very, very, very dangerous," in a televised speech.

Things are finally opening up in the Middle East. Israel is now directly engaged in airstrikes against Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, and - possibly very soon - Yemen. If it starts serious bombing in Lebanon, and Hezbollah - armed to the teeth this time around - fights back, it's curtains for the modern incarnation of Judea.

The Israeli govt justifies its utterly insane belligerence by saying 'the Iranians are everywhere'. But calling everyone it hates 'Iranians' is the Israeli equivalent of Western leaders calling all dissenting opinion 'Russian trolls'.

What's actually happening is that the largest (population-wise) countries in the region are coordinating their military actions to encircle and eventually contain Israel. This is their (belated) pushback against the Neocons' Yinon plan to 'balkanize' the region.

Israel - blinded by pathological hatred - doesn't see that its wild, preemptive actions are just tightening the noose around its neck...

UPDATE 26 Aug 2019

From RT, 26/8/2019: Israel strikes Palestinian group in Lebanon after punishing Hamas for Gaza rocket fire

Israeli air strikes targeted the headquarters of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine in Lebanon's Bekaa region, local media report. Earlier the IDF struck several targets in Gaza, in retaliation to rocket fire.

"Three Israeli air strikes targeted the Lebanese-Syria border east of Zahle... explosions were heard in several parts of the Bekaa valley," An-Nahar news channel said as unverified footage of the strike apparently targeting the PFLP office spread across social media. The strikes seem to be limited as the PFLP said initial reports indicate no casualties.

The alleged raid on the Lebanon-Syria border area follows a confirmed Israeli attack against Hamas targets in Gaza Strip that targeted a military compound and the militant group battalion commander's office. Earlier, Tel Aviv accused the organization of firing three rockets into Israel, two of which were intercepted by the Iron Dome missile defense system.

See also:

• US confirms Israel staged 'several strikes in recent days' on Iraq