The Lebanese Army accused the Israeli air force of being responsible for three explosions that shook the Southern Lebanese towns of Zrariye and Rzay on Monday, according to a Lebanese army statement. The explosions were triggered by “booby-trapped wiretapping devices in a remote way," according to the statement. The discovery was made after a unit, including military experts from the Lebanese army, investigated the sites of the explosions. The Lebanese army is investigating the incident. The devices were destroyed using Israeli air-to-ground missiles, launched from an unmanned Israeli warplane. The Lebanese state-run National News Agency (NNA) said these tapping devices had been planted by Israel in the valley between Al-Zrariyeh and Tair Filsay, villages near the Litani River. Israeli warplanes were conducting “mock raids” in Lebanon earlier the same day, flying at medium-altitude in Lebanese airspace, just prior to the explosion, said NNA. No reports of casualties or injuries have been made. Israeli planes enter Lebanese airspace frequently. Israel has ‘mock-raided' Lebanon several times before this year, once in May, and also earlier in March, when Israeli airplanes entered Lebanese airspace and flew over parts of the country at a low-altitude. Israeli reconnaissance warplanes also entered Lebanon in June last year. According to UN Resolution 1701, passed on 11 August 2006, there should be “no foreign forces in Lebanon without the consent of its government." The militant Shia'a group Hizbullah said that it had discovered one of these Israeli devices ahead of the explosions, adding that they thought one of the devices had been installed to spy on the communications of their group. Hizbullah, a long-term enemy of Israel, also added that this espionage attempt is part of incessant attacks on the Lebanese telecoms system. They claimed that this constitutes “a violation of Lebanon's sovereignty and is an attack on the safety and security of the Lebanese people." Hizbullah and Lebanon fought a short-lived yet deadly war in the summer of 2006. The war, which lasted a little over a month, started in July and ended on August 14 following a United Nations (UN) brokered ceasefire. It left 116 Israeli soldiers and 43 civilians dead on the Israeli side and over 1100 civilians and 28 Lebanese army soldiers dead on the Lebanese side, according to a BBC report. The number of Hizbullah soldiers left dead is estimated to be between 250 -530 people, but no accurate figures have been made available. In addition to the human casualties, the 2006 war left behind severe damage to Lebanese infrastructure, with factories, bridges, roads, and several thousand houses destroyed. Approximately one million Lebanese were displaced following the war, according to BBC. Many of them could not return to their homes because of the danger of undetonated cluster bombs dropped by Israel. Both sides are accused of violating international humanitarian law during the war.
