Lebanon’s Hezbollah says it downed Israeli drone on border

BEIRUT — Lebanon’s paramilitary group Hezbollah announced Monday the downing of an Israeli drone that entered Lebanese airspace in the south.

The Hezbollah-affiliated Al-Manar channel reported that fighters of the group shot down the drone with “appropriate weapons” near the southern village of Zibqine, without providing more details.

In a statement, Israel's military acknowledged that one of its drones crashed in Lebanese territory during “routine activity,” adding that there was no risk of any data being taken from the drone.

Israel and Lebanon remain technically at war. However, the two countries’ armies have not engaged in direct confrontation since the Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon in May 2000.

The Iran-backed Hezbollah, which has gained considerable influence inside Lebanon in recent years, last fought a war with Israel in 2006. Since then, occasional skirmishes have erupted between the two parties on the border. The two have also claimed to down each other’s drones in past years.

In April, dozens of rockets were fired from southern Lebanon, a Hezbollah stronghold, toward northern Israel amid tensions in the Palestinian territories. Hezbollah denied being behind the salvo of rockets, blaming instead Palestinian militants.

In August 2021, Israel and Hezbollah engaged in several days of cross-border strikes, with more than 10 rockets fired by the Shiite movement toward Israel, drawing retaliatory fire from the Israeli army. The escalation came after an alleged Iranian attack on an Israeli-managed tanker off the coast of Oman. Iran denied its involvement in the attack back then.

Other incidents have been reported on the border in past months. Earlier this month, Israeli forces fired tear gas at Lebanese protesters near the Kfar Chouba hills, which Beirut says is Lebanese land occupied by Israel. The protests erupted in solidarity with a Lebanese farmer who was defending his land against Israeli bulldozers in the area.

Late last year, an Irish peacekeeper was killed when two UNIFIL armored vehicles came under small arms fire in southern Lebanon. Hezbollah rejected accusations that five people recently indicted over their alleged involvement in the incident were members of the movement.