Israeli warplanes violate Lebanese airspace

[Jahness]

Israeli warplanes violate Lebanese airspace


Eight Israeli warplanes violated the Lebanese air space on Tuesday, drawing anti-aircraft fire from the Lebanese army.

The Lebanese military said in a statement that eight Israeli planes, including two surveillance drones, flew over the Lebanese territory for more than an hour.

The Israeli planes flew over southern Lebanon and then headed northeast toward the Mount Lebanon area and the Bekaa Valley before returning to Israel.

The Lebanese forces fired surface-to-air rockets at the drones, the statement said.

The Israeli army quickly responded by firing three mortar rounds across the border, causing no casualties, it added.

Israel pulled out from southern Lebanon in 2000, but it frequently violates the Lebanese air space, despite UN calls to respect the Blue Line border drawn to demark the Lebanon-Israeli border.

The new airspace violations came two days after the Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah celebrated a landslide victory in parliamentary elections in southern Lebanon.

The movement vowed to continue its resistance against the Israeli occupation until the Jewish state leaves the disputed Shebaa Farms district.

But Hezbollah’s foreign relations chief Ali Darmush told a Paris press conference Monday that Hezbollah would “not hand over its weapons even if Israel withdraws from the Shebaa Farms.�

He cited the continuing threat from Israeli violations of Lebanese airspace as the main reason.

6/7/2005 5:15:00 PM GMT
http://www.aljazeera.com/me.asp?service_ID=8546