Hezbollah may strike against Israeli surveillance flights over Lebanon.
The Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar quoted a Hezbollah source as saying the group is “close to adopting practical measures that will force Israel to cease the overflights,” according to Israel’s daily Ha’aretz.
The threat conforms to Israeli intelligence assessments that, following last month’s prisoner swap, Hezbollah would seek a pretext to continue its armed struggle against the Jewish state. Israel traded five Lebanese prisoners and the remains of 199 others for the bodies of two Israeli reservists captured by Hezbollah in 2006.
Other Arab media have reported recently on the deployment of anti-aircraft batteries in Lebanon, and Hezbollah chief Sheik Hassan Nasrallah recently said his group soon would adopt a new “defensive strategy.”
Lebanon considers Israeli overflights to be violations of the U.N.-desigated boundary between the two countries. Israel says the flights are necessary to its security.
