Hezbollah downs Israeli drone over Lebanon
Hezbollah says its fighters seized the drone that flew over the UN-demarcated Blue Line.
Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement said it downed and seized an Israeli drone on Saturday that flew over the Blue Line that demarcates Israel’s 2000 withdrawal from the country.
Hezbollah said its fighters downed the drone near the town of Aita al-Shaab.
The Israeli army said one of its drones “fell in Lebanese territory” during “operational activity along the Blue Line”.
Israel said last month it had repelled an attempt by Hezbollah fighters to penetrate the line.
Hezbollah denied any involvement in the incident, which came after an alleged Israeli missile attack hit positions of Syrian regime forces and their allies south of Damascus, killing five.
Hezbollah, whose fighters back Damascus in the nine-year Syrian civil war, at the time said one of its own was among the dead and it vowed to respond.
Lebanon and Israel are still technically at war, and a United Nations force, UNIFIL, patrols the line between the two.
Set up in 1978, UNIFIL was beefed up after a month-long devastating war in 2006 between Israel and Hezbollah.
The 10,500-strong force, in coordination with the Lebanese army, is tasked with monitoring a ceasefire and Israeli pullout from a demilitarised zone on the border.
Israel accuses Hezbollah of stockpiling weapons at the border to prepare for a new war.