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| By: Associated Press |
| Published: November 9, 2006 |
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Israeli warplanes again flew over towns and villages of southern and eastern Lebanon on Thursday, Lebanese security officials said. The move came despite repeated calls by the United Nations for Israel to cease such flights over Lebanese territory.
Israeli fighter jets flew over the southern coastal town of Naqoura and the city of Tyre as well as Baalbek in eastern Lebanon's Bekaa Valley, said Lebanese officials, who spoke on customary condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak to the media.
Details on how many planes and of what type were not immediately available. Naqoura hosts the headquarters of the U.N. peacekeeping force known as UNIFIL.
The flyovers highlight the unsettled tensions between Israel and its northern neighbor, whose political situation has grown increasingly more uncertain. Lebanon and the U.N. have called the Israeli flights a clear violation of the U.N.-brokered cease-fire that ended the 34-day war between Israel and Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas in August.
Israel's military reiterated Thursday that its flights over Lebanon were for surveillance. In a statement, the military said Lebanon had yet to comply with the August U.N. Security Council resolution that required the country to prevent the smuggling of weapons from Syria and to disarm Hezbollah militants in southern Lebanon.
Israeli fighter jets on Oct. 31 staged mock raids over Hezbollah strongholds south of Beirut and in southern Lebanon in the strongest show of force since the war ended.
French Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie said Wednesday night that flights over Lebanon nearly caused a "catastrophe" that day, when French peacekeeping troops were seconds away from firing on the Israeli warplanes.
She said a squadron of Israeli F-15 fighter planes nose-dived that day over French peacekeepers' positions in southern Lebanon and were "clearly in attack position." French troops responded by readying an anti-aircraft missile, and were seconds away from firing on the warplanes, she added.
The Israeli ambassador was summoned to the Foreign Ministry following the incident, Defense Ministry spokesman Jean-Francois Bureau said.
French officials have regularly complained that Israel's overflights of Lebanon are in breach of the U.N. cease-fire resolution. |
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