Israel Matzav

Hezbullah to take 'practical measures' against overflights?

Thursday's Lebanese daily al-Akhbar reports that Hezbullah has threatened to take 'practical measures' against IAF overflights of Lebanon.

It quoted a source who said that Hezbollah is "close to adopting practical measures that will force Israel to cease the overflights."

The report is in line with Israeli intelligence assessments that predicted that following the completion of the Israel-Hezbollah prisoner swap, Hezbollah would seek excuses to resume its struggle against Israel in order to justify its refusal to disarm.

...

There have been a number of reports in the Arab media recently on the planned deployment of anti-aircraft missile batteries in the Lebanese mountains, whose purpose would be to disrupt the flights of Israeli aircraft over the country.

Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah said recently that the group would adopt a new "defensive strategy" in Lebanon, with the cooperation of the country's other political groups.

Israeli military sources believe that Hezbollah is planning to alter its military policy toward Israel by carrying out operations inside Lebanon rather than along the border, in order to bolster its legitimacy among the Lebanese public.

On Wednesday, for the first time since the Second Lebanon War, the organization published a condemnation of Israeli overflights and said that those responsible for stopping them are the government in Beirut and the United Nations. It accused Israel of violating Lebanese sovereignty by flying into its airspace and sailing into its territorial waters, and accused UN peacekeepers in the country of failing to put an end to the violations.

Aren't you all glad that Olmert stayed in power long enough to exchange Samir al-Kuntar for two corpses and give Hezbullah a new raison d'etre?

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 7:34 AM