Lebanon says Israel drone attack ‘declaration of war’

BEIRUT: Lebanon´s president on Monday said an Israeli drone attack on Beirut at the weekend was a “declaration of war” that justified a military response. “What happened is a declaration of war,” Michel Aoun told Jan Kubis, the UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon, in a meeting.

“This allows us to resort to our right to defend our sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity,” he added, in a statement released by his office. The army said two Israeli drones had violated Lebanese airspace over Beirut before dawn on Sunday, with one exploding in the air.

Hezbollah movement chief Hasan Nasrallah said an armed drone had hit a target in the party´s Beirut stronghold, without specifying. It was the first such “hostile action” since a 2006 war between Hezbollah and Israel, added the head of the Iran-backed party, also vowing to retaliate. “I have repeatedly said before that Lebanon will not fire a single shot from its border unless it is in self-defence,” said Aoun, an Hezbollah ally. “What happened yesterday allows us to exercise this right,” he added.

Earlier on Monday, Israeli air strikes targeted a Palestinian faction loyal to the Syrian government in eastern Lebanon. State-run NNA news agency said “three hostile strikes” after midnight hit Lebanon´s eastern mountains near Qusaya town “where the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command has military posts”.

Aoun said Israeli attacks on Qusaya and Beirut violated a UN Security Council resolution ending the month-long 2006 war that killed 1,200 people in Lebanon, mostly civilians, and 160 in Israel. Lebanon had filed a complaint against Israel to the UN Security Council. On Sunday, Nasrallah threatened Israel after the Beirut attack.

“The time when Israeli aircraft come and bombard parts of Lebanon is over,” he said in a televised speech. “I say to the Israeli army along the border, from tonight be ready and wait for us,” he added. “What happened yesterday will not pass.

Hezbollah, considered a terrorist organisation by Israel and the United States, is a major political actor in Lebanon and also a key government backer in war-torn Syria. The latest incident also came after Israel on Saturday launched strikes in neighbouring Syria to prevent what it said was an Iranian attack on the Jewish state.

Nasrallah on Sunday said two Hezbollah members were among those killed in the strike. They were laid to rest in Beirut´s southern suburbs on Monday, amid a large turnout of party supporters.

Netanyahu orders news settler homes at fatal attack site: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday ordered hundreds of new settler homes to be built near the site of a bomb attack that killed an Israeli teen in the occupied West Bank.

The homemade bomb on Friday near the settlement of Dolev, northwest of Ramallah, killed 17-year-old Rina Shnerb and wounded her father Eitan and brother Dvir in what the military called a terror attack. Israeli security forces have detained a number of Palestinian suspects but say the investigation is still under way.

An English-language statement from Netanyahu´s office said he ordered that plans be submitted at the next meeting of planning authorities for “the establishment of a new neighbourhood in Dolev with approximately 300 new residential housing units”. Settler leaders often say after attacks on Israelis that the right response is settlement growth. “We will deepen our roots and strike at our enemies,” the statement quoted Netanyahu as saying.

“We will continue to strengthen and develop settlement. Netanyahu and his right-wing allies draw signficant support from the settlement movement and they will be fighting what looks like being a tough general election on September 17. Palestinians sporadically attack Israelis in the West Bank, occupied by Israel since the Six-Day War of 1967, but bombings have become rare. Recent attacks have mostly involved guns, knives and car ramming.