Israel intensifies violations of Lebanon”s airspace
Unifil insists “nothing different” than usual
Israel”s air force stepped up reconnaissance flights over Beirut on Monday after a senior Israeli intelligence chief warned politicians that Hizbullah could launch an attack across the Lebanese border.
Several Israeli warplanes violated Lebanese airspace on Monday, flying over Hizbullah”s political strongholds in Beirut”s southern suburbs. Speaking to The Daily Star hours after the flights, Hizbullah spokesman Hussein Rahhal condemned the "aggressive actions."
"They are violating Resolution 1701," he said, referring to the United Nations Security Council decision that brought an end to hostilities between Israel and Lebanon in 2006.
The overflights come the day after Major General Amos Yadlin, the head of Israeli military intelligence, told the country”s cabinet that a response from Hizbullah to Israel”s onslaught in Gaza was a possibility.
"Hizbullah might carry out a low-profile attack by means of a Palestinian organization that would be limited and not set the border alight," Yadlin told senior politicians at a specially convened meeting on Sunday.
Israel has called up reservists to its northern border in anticipation of such an attack, but most analysts say that neither side wants to see renewed hostilities at present.
Despite this, security forces are taking no chances. The Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) and the UN peacekeeping force in South Lebanon, UNIFIL have bolstered their troop levels in the border region in an effort to minimize the chances of the heightened tension spilling over into violence.
Last week Israeli warplanes flew low over several areas of South Lebanon in what analysts said was "a clear warning" to Hizbullah.
But UNIFIL spokesman Andrea Teneti said on Monday that overflights of South Lebanon were nothing unusual. "There are air violations that we protest, but this is nothing different to any other day," he said.
He added that there had been no special contact between the UNIFIL and the Israeli military regarding the threat of retaliatory attacks.
"The working relationship between all the parties is the same as it usually is," he said.
Despite attempts to project a sense of normality on the Israeli border, tensions are clearly running high as the Israeli assault on Gaza moves into a new phase. As news of Israel”s ground incursion broke on Saturday evening, UNIFIL”s commander, Major General Claudio Graziano, made a series of telephone calls to high-profile politicians, according to media reports.
The reports said that Graziano spoke with Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, President Michel Sleiman and Parliamentary Speaker Nabih Berri to emphasize the need for "self-restraint and alertness to prevent any dramatic development in the south."
Hizbullah itself has given no sign that a military response is on the agenda at present. The party”s leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, has made several speeches recently in which he has attacked Arab governments for not doing enough to bring an end to the violence in Gaza.
But Nasrallah has stopped short of threatening military action, instead placing Hizbullah fighters on high alert and calling for Hamas to inflict heavy losses on invading Israeli troops in Gaza.
Hizbullah spokesman Rahhal said on Monday that nothing had changed on this front.
"Our position has been expressed by our secretary general," he told The Daily Star, referring to Nasrallah. "There is nothing new to add."