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Israel flies spy balloon over southern Lebanon one day after border fire exchange

An Israeli reconnaissance balloon flies over Meiss Ej Jabal village in the southern Lebanon on September 2, 2019. (Photo by National News Agency)

The Israeli military has launched a reconnaissance balloon over the southern part of Lebanon, a day after Israeli army forces and fighters from the Lebanese Hezbollah resistance movement exchanged fire along the border with the occupied Palestinian territories following a week of rising tensions.

Lebanon’s official National News Agency reported that the device was sent over Meiss Ej Jabal village in Marjeyoun district in the early hours of Monday.

On Sunday, Hezbollah fired a number of anti-tank missiles at an Israeli army base and vehicles near the border in response to an Israeli air raid last week that killed two of its fighters in Syria, as well as an Israeli drone attack on southern Beirut.

According to the Lebanese resistance movement, the missiles launched from Lebanon destroyed a tank in Avivim in northern Israel, killing or wounding those inside it. The Israeli military, however, alleged the attack did not lead to any casualties. The Israeli army said it fired 100 shells inside Lebanon in return.

Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri on Sunday called upon the international community to "intervene" to prevent the situation from escalating into a full-fledged war, his office said.

Hariri asked US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and French President Emmanuel Macron to help put an end to conflicts on the southern borders between Lebanon and Israel.

Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said on Saturday evening that the resistance movement was determined to give a response to Israel over its recent drone incursion into Lebanon.

"The need for a response is decided," he said during a televised speech ahead of the Islamic lunar calendar month of Muharram – the 10th day of which marks the martyrdom anniversary of Imam Hussein, the third Shia Imam and Prophet Muhammad's grandson.

The Hezbollah chief added that the response was about “establishing the rules of engagement and... the logic of protection for the country. Israel must pay a price.”

On August 26, Hezbollah said Israel had sent two drones into Lebanon on a bombing mission the previous weekend.

According to the resistance movement, the first drone had fallen on a building housing Hezbollah’s media office in the suburb of Dahieh. The second drone, which appeared to have been sent by Israel to search for the first one, had crashed in an empty plot nearby after being detonated in the air, it added.

Following the drone raids, Nasrallah vowed in a televised speech that fighters of the resistance movement would counter any further violation of the Lebanese airspace by Israeli drones.


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