Source: Al Arabiya & Reuters
Tuesday 4 January 2022 21:56:21
Israel downed a drone launched by Lebanon’s Hezbollah group which crossed over into Israel from Lebanon, the Israeli Defense Forces said on Tuesday.
“We downed a Hezbollah drone that crossed from Lebanon into Israel today. The drone was monitored by our soldiers throughout the incident,” IDF said in a tweet.
“The IDF will continue to operate against any attempt by terrorists to violate Israeli sovereignty,” it added.
Israel considers the Iran-backed Hezbollah an enemy and has long threatened it will respond with extreme counterattacks in “the next war” against threats from Lebanon and its main supporter Tehran.
Hezbollah has long enjoyed financial and military support from Iran. Israeli defense officials assess Iran spends nearly $1 billion annually on Hezbollah.
Lebanon and Israel are still in a formal state of war and have long contested their land and maritime borders. Israel has also carried out hundreds of air strikes in neighboring Syria in recent years against suspected Iranian military deployments or arms transfers to Hezbollah.