Nasrallah to IDF: Wait for our response, on any border, at any time
According to Nasrallah, the drones which fell in Beirut was “Israeli suicide drone attack” on a target in Beirut’s southern suburbs.
By ANNA AHRONHEIMLebanon's Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah is seen on a video screen as he addresses his supporters in Beirut, Lebanon February 16, 2018.(photo credit: REUTERS)
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah warned on Sunday from his Beirut bunker that the Shi’ite group would respond against Israel after two drones, one armed, crashed in the Lebanese capital earlier in the morning.“What happened in Syria and Lebanon last night is very, very dangerous,” Nasrallah said in a speech on Sunday night, adding that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “would be mistaken if he thinks that this issue can go unnoticed. The time at which Israeli war jets used to strike targets in Lebanon while the usurping entity in Palestine kept safe has ended. From tonight, I tell the Israeli army on the border: wait for our response, which may take place at any time on the border and beyond the border. Be prepared and wait for us.”Lebanon’s military said two IDF reconnaissance drones crashed in Beirut early on Saturday morning, and that troops quickly “took the necessary measures” and cordoned off the area.“Two Israeli enemy reconnaissance aircraft violated Lebanese airspace over the area of the Moawad-Madi neighborhood in the southern suburbs of Beirut,” read a statement by the Lebanese Armed Forces. “The first crashed and the second exploded in the air, causing limited damage.”But according to Nasrallah, the drones that fell in Beirut were an “Israeli suicide drone attack” on a target in Beirut’s southern suburbs.“The first drone was a reconnaissance drone and was not carrying explosives, and was trying to transmit accurate footage of a certain target,” he was quoted by Lebanon’s Naharnet as saying. “Young men started hurling rocks at the drone and it was hit by a rock. It is not clear whether it was downed by the rock or by a technical malfunction.”Lebanese President Michel Aoun blasted Israel on Sunday, calling the “Israeli aggression” on Beirut’s southern suburbs a “blatant attack on Lebanon and the integrity of its territory.” Aoun said that Israel’s “aggression is a threat to regional stability.”Hezbollah spokesman Muhammad Afif said on Sunday that one Israeli drone exploded and caused significant damage to the group’s media office in Beirut’s Moawwas district, wounding three people. Another drone was reported to have crashed in the group’s stronghold neighborhood of Dahiyeh shortly afterward, causing no damage.“There were two drones – the first fell and was neutralized, the second exploded,” Afif was quoted by Hezbollah’s al-Manar news site as saying, adding that the group did not shoot down either of the drones.“The first unmanned reconnaissance aircraft is now in the custody of the party, which is analyzing the background of its operation and the tasks it tried to carry out,” Afif added.
According to reports, Hezbollah forces and troops from the Lebanese Armed Forces cordoned off the scene immediately after the incident, preventing journalists from reaching the location.Israel and Hezbollah fought a deadly 33-day war in 2006, which came to an end under UN Security Council Resolution 1701. Israel and Lebanon remain technically at war, and Beirut regularly accuses Israel of violating its airspace with fighter jets and drones.Hours before the incident in Beirut, the IDF announced that it had foiled an Iranian attack against northern Israel by striking targets in Aqraba south of Damascus.The IDF said that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quds Force was planning to launch several armed quadcopters to attack targets in northern Israel in the coming days.
