News / Lebanon

Hezbollah warns Israel of ‘surprise’ retaliatory blow after drone incursion

Wednesday, 28 August 2019 5:36 AM [ Last Update: Wednesday, 28 August 2019 6:17 AM ]

This picture taken on August 25, 2019 shows damage to a building housing a media center of the Lebanese Hezbollah resistance movement in the south of the capital Beirut, after two drones came down in its vicinity earlier in the day. (By AFP)

The Hezbollah resistance movement has warned Israel of a “surprise blow” in retaliation for the regime’s recent drone incursion into Lebanon.

In an interview with Russia’s RT television network on Tuesday, Hezbollah Deputy Secretary General Sheikh Naim Qassem said that the recent Israeli drone attacks on the Lebanese soil could not be considered “a passing issue.”

He also refused to provide details of Hezbollah’s response, adding, however, that the reaction would be “a surprise” for the Tel Aviv regime.

Qassem further described the Lebanese government’s position on the Israeli assaults as correct, stressing that the country would not wait for a reaction from the United Nations Security Council.

Two Israeli drones — which Hezbollah said were on a bombing mission — crashed in the Hezbollah stronghold in the south of the Lebanese capital, Beirut, on Sunday. One of the drones blew up near the ground, causing some damage to Hezbollah’s media office in the Moawwad neighborhood of Beirut’s Dahieh suburb.

Hezbollah said the unmanned aerial vehicles were rigged with explosives, with the movement’s Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah stressing that they were on a “suicide mission.”

He also described Sunday’s raids as the first Israeli attack on Lebanon since the 2006 war.

PressTV-‘Hezbollah to counter Israeli drones, shoot them down’

Nasrallah says Hezbollah resistance movement will not tolerate any further violation of the Lebanese airspace by intruding Israeli drones.

“From now on, we will down any Israeli drones in Lebanon’s skies,” he said. “I say to the Israeli army on the border from tonight, stand guard. Wait for us one, two, three, four days.”

Lebanese President Michel Aoun has said Israel’s recent drone strikes in Lebanon amounts to “a declaration of war” against the Arab country.

Lebanon’s Prime Minister Saad Hariri said Israel used the drone attacks “to change the rules of engagement.”

The aggression, he noted, constitutes “a threat to regional stability and an attempt to push the situation towards further tension.”

Israel launched two wars on Lebanon in 2000 and 2006, in both of which Hezbollah inflicted heavy losses on the regime’s military. Israeli officials have even threatened another war on Lebanon.

Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:

www.presstv.co.uk