BEIRUT (Parliament Politics Magazine) – Tensions between Israel and Hezbollah eased on Saturday after a drone flew into Israeli airspace on Friday for a 40-minute, 70-kilometre surveillance mission. After the Israeli Iron Dome failed to bring it down, it returned to Lebanon.
Hezbollah claimed responsibility for the “Hassan” drone’s launch on Friday, claiming that it successfully completed its reconnaissance mission over the targeted location despite all efforts to intercept it.
In reply, two Israeli jets flew low above Beirut, violating airspace.
“The Israeli response to the Hezbollah drone was exaggerated,” an Israeli army official told Israeli news sources, adding that the response fulfilled the goal Hezbollah was getting at when it boasted about developing drones.
On Thursday, Israel shot down a Hezbollah drone that had penetrated its airspace.
The Israeli violation of Beirut’s airspace, which caused alarm among locals because the jets flew quite low, elicited no formal response from the Lebanese government.
What transpired over the previous couple of days can be characterised according to military science as ‘show off your strength so you don’t have to use it, Gen. Hisham Jaber, retired Lebanese Armed Forces Brig. told Arab News.
Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah’s statement on Wednesday about drone manufacturing, according to Jaber, provided no new information.
“The Israeli enemy was aware of this, but was unsure if it was accurate. The drone that eluded the Iron Dome was a reconnaissance drone, not a combat drone. It wasn’t enough to start a war.
He added, he didn’t believe that the recent escalation would lead to Hezbollah taking military action on the southern border, because it had no interest in striking first; whomever does so would take full responsibility for the consequences.
Hezbollah would not break the status quo until Israel does first, Jaber stated. Meanwhile, Israel will not attack Iran since the US has already blocked it from doing so because all Iranian wings in Syria and Lebanon would retaliate. Furthermore, Israel’s ally Russia, which is present in Syria, will not permit such escalation.
“The absence of an official Lebanese viewpoint about recent events and Nasrallah’s Wednesday speech,” was criticised by Lebanese newspapers.
Hezbollah, according to several opposition periodicals, has stripped the country of strategic powers in deciding the fate of the country.
“The resistance has the power to convert its weapons into precision missiles,” Nasrallah claimed on Wednesday.
“We have been manufacturing drones in Lebanon for a long time,” he stated. Anyone who wishes to buy them can do so.”
“The resistance’s strength and deterrence capability, whether by land, sea, or air, will force the Israelis to flee,” Hezbollah MP Ali Fayyad stated on Saturday.
“Day by day, the balance of power shifts in favour of the resistance as the adversary fails to adapt to its rules and logic.”
