Lebanon’s Hezbollah takes down Israeli drone over UN Blue Line

The Lebanese Hezbollah movement said it was able to take down an Israeli drone that flew over the UN’s Blue Line on Saturday. The drone was reportedly downed near the southern village of Aita al-Shaab in Lebanon.

Hezbollah has shared that its fighters were able to take down an Israeli drone on Saturday which was seen flying over the UN Blue Line border. Israel responded and said that its drone fell out of the sky into Lebanon during “operational activity along the Blue Line.”

The UN Blue Line is a border demarcation set up by the United Nations on June 7, 2000, between Israel and Lebanon to determine if Israel had fully withdrawn its troops from Lebanon.

We are not aware of the type of drone that was downed by Hezbollah but assume it was on a surveillance and reconnaissance mission to locate enemy positions and keep track of what is happening on the other side of the border.

Continuing rise in tension

A few weeks ago, information was released by a Lebanese reporter that a Lebanese drone filming a music video for the country’s Hezbollah Orchestra was grounded by Israel due to the drone flying too close to the border between the two countries. Israel has also stated that the drone crossed over the border which prompted the country to take control over the drone.

Whether the drone was just filming the orchestra or it was an elaborate setup by the Lebanese government to spy on Israel, the drone was made to fly 3 km (~1.8 miles) into Israel and was later forced to land. While flying away, the drone captured an image of Israel from above before the signal to the controller was lost.

On top of the drone incidents, a fighter from the Iranian-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah was killed during an Israeli drone strike just outside the capital of Syria, Damascus. Earlier this week another missile strike took out five Iran-backed fighters with one of the fighters believed to be from the Hezbollah militant group.

Israel is effectively at war with both Lebanon and Syria with many drone strikes happening on Syrian soil to stop Iran from getting further into Syria. Israel has announced that extra reinforcements will make their way to the Northern border and hit military targets in southern Syria. Syria then proceeded to shoot non-lethal fire in the direction of Israel.

Photo: Aljazeera