JERUSALEM (JTA) — The Lebanese Air Force said it fired on Israeli drones that entered the country’s airspace on Wednesday night.
The Israel Defense Forces confirmed that two of its drones were fired on, but they completed their mission and returned safely to Israeli territory, the Kan national broadcaster reported.
On Sunday, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said his forces would “bring down” Israeli drones found in Lebanon’s airspace. He also threatened that his Lebanon-based militia would take revenge following an Israeli airstrike on what Israel said were targets in Syria of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quds Force and Shiite militia. The strike killed two Hezbollah fighters
There was also an attack on a Palestinian terror group’s positions in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley, near the Syrian border, and the crash of two drones said to be carrying explosives in a Hezbollah-controlled area of Beirut that are alleged to be by Israel.
President Michel Aoun of Lebanon called the strikes a “declaration of war.”
Military bases in northern Israel went on high alert in the wake of the strikes. In addition, Israel’s military on Tuesday began limiting civilian traffic near the border with Lebanon in expectation of retaliation by Hezbollah and it deployed an Iron Dome missile defense battery in northern Israel.
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