RAMALLAH: According to several Lebanese media outlets, Israeli jets were spotted flying over southern Lebanon on Tuesday evening. An estimated seven planes flew over Sidon and Khaled, according to Lebanese news agency Daily Star. “Since Friday of last week, Israeli reconnaissance and warplanes have repeatedly violated Lebanon's airspace, reaching the eastern region and flying over Baalbek and Riyaq along with southern areas, according to the Army," Daily Star reports. It was also added that the penetration of Lebanese airspace is also a violation of the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701, meant to end the 2006 Israel-Lebanon War, which demands “no foreign forces in Lebanon without the consent of its government." Though they have yet to comment on this particularly incident, Israeli officials regularly argue that Hezbollah has also not held up its end of the resolution, which calls for the disarmament of all factions in Lebanon other than the state. According to Israeli daily Ha'aretz, the Lebanese army has also claimed that Israeli Air Force (IAF) jets also violated Lebanese airspace on Saturday, patrolling southern Lebanon's Beka'a Valley, under de-facto Hezbollah control. Lebanese daily Al-Mustaqbal reported that a large explosion was heard at a weapons depot in the southern Lebanese village of Machgara. The flyovers come as Netanyahu is fresh from warning that Syria's chemical weapons could fall into the hands of Hezbollah as a result of the ongoing Syrian civil war. BN
