Lebanon's National News Agency (NNA) reported on Monday that an Israeli Air Force unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) had made a reconnaissance flight over mountainous regions adjacent to the Lebanese border with Syria.
According to the NNA, the drone flew for several hours, hovering over the area from al-Faqaa in the south to Deir el-Asheer in the north.
The alleged flight comes after the Lebanese Ministry of Defence argued last week that about 20 Israeli fighter jets and UAVs had entered Lebanon’s airspace in the past seven days, in an apparent violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which established a ceasefire on the Lebanese-Israeli border after a war between the two sides fourteen years ago.
Lebanon's President Michel Aoun, in turn, told UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon Jan Kubis earlier in May that the country’s government remains committed to “maintaining security on the border, despite Israeli provocations”.
Tel Aviv, for its part, has repeatedly insisted that the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) have a right to maintain freedom of action against Iran and the Lebanon-based movement Hezbollah by, in particular, sending UAVs across the region.
2006 Israel-Lebanon War
The last major conflagration between Israel and Lebanon took place in 2006, when the two countries fought a 34-day war sparked by a Hezbollah cross-border raid and the kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers.
The confrontation claimed the lives of over 1,300 people, including hundreds of Lebanese civilians, and ended in an UN-brokered ceasefire. Israel and Lebanon have fought a total of four wars since Israel’s establishment in 1947 and have repeatedly threatened one another with violence in recent years.
