Israel holds drill near Lebanon amid fear of Hezbollah reprisal
The Israeli military has launched its second set of wargames near Lebanon’s border amid the regime’s fear of the Lebanese resistance movement’s promised revenge for Tel Aviv’s assassination of one of its members last year.
The Israeli air force launched “surprise” drills near the occupied territories’ border with Lebanon on Monday, saying the maneuvers were to last for two more days, Reuters reported.
The military said the “exercise simulates combat scenarios in the northern front, and will test all components in the core missions, including maintaining aerial superiority.”
The event, it added, sought to practice protecting the regime’s interests in the occupied territories “as well as attacking and gathering intelligence.”
Just five days ago, the Israeli military announced two-day ground force drills, dubbed “Lightning Storm,” in the same border area.
The daily Israel Hayom said the ground force maneuvers come “as tensions on the northern front rise.”
Israel and Lebanon are technically at war due to the former’s continued occupation of the Arab country’s Shebaa Farms that the regime overran in a war against regional territories in 1967.
Israel launched two wars against Lebanon in the 2000s. Hezbollah forced it to retreat on both occasions.
Last July, an Israeli airstrike led to the assassination of a Hezbollah member, named as Ali Kamel Mohsen Jawad, in Syria.
The movement that enjoys wide popular appeal in Lebanon as well as notable presence across the country’s political and military spheres, has vowed to avenge the assassination.
In two speeches that followed the assassination, Hezbollah Secretary General Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah announced significant advancements concerning the group’s capabilities.
He first announced that the movement had managed to acquire the prowess to take on Israel’s intrusive drones.
Subsequently, Nasrallah said his group had, within the space of just one year, doubled the size of its missile arsenal. He also noted that the entire occupied territories were within the range of the movement’s precision projectiles.
“Any target across the area of occupied Palestine that we want to hit accurately, we are able to hit accurately,” the Hezbollah chief told Lebanon’s al-Mayadeen television network on December 27.
He also referred to Tel Aviv’s incessant flights over Lebanon’s airspace using unmanned aircraft, saying, "The flight of Zionist drones in Lebanon's airspace shows a strong fear of the response by the resistance.”
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