JERUSALEM: Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant accused Iran on Monday of setting up an airport in southern Lebanon to enable attacks against Israel.
Israel is troubled by arch-foe Iran’s nuclear program, missile build-up and support for militants in the region. The most powerful group, the Lebanese Hezbollah, fought a war with Israel in 2006 but this year several incidents have taken place along the border and angry words have been exchanged.
In televised remarks to an international security conference hosted by Reichman University, Gallant showed aerial images of what he described as an airport built by Iran with a view to pursuing what he called “terrorist objectives” against Israel.
He did not elaborate on these, but said the site could accommodate mid-sized aircraft. The location he gave was near the Lebanese village of Birket Jabbour and city of Jezzin, some 20 km (12 miles) north of the Israeli border town of Metulla.
Neither Hezbollah nor Iranian officials had an immediate response to Gallant’s remarks.
A non-Israeli source with knowledge of the site said it could accommodate large drones — some of them weaponized — built off of Iranian blueprints. The source said drones launched from the site could be used for both internal and external operational activities — but added that the nature and direction of the runway suggested the former were more likely.
Hezbollah has been investing heavily in drone technology, the source said.
Gallant said there was an Iranian effort to create another dangerous front on Israel’s border with Jordan, which has a peace treaty with Israel, “through Shiite militias that operate and are based in Iraq.”
He did not elaborate on the scale or provide further details on how this was being accomplished.
Israel is widely believed to have its own nuclear arsenal, although it neither confirms nor denies this.
Gallant also mentioned divisions in Israeli society over planned judicial overhaul legislation which has led to mass demonstrations and some reservists saying they would refuse call-ups if the legislation passes.
“The continuation of the internal struggle is jeopardizing national resilience, The Israel Defense Forces and our ability to provide security to the State of Israel,” Gallant said.
Israel sees south Lebanon airport as Iran-backed springboard for attacks
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Israel sees south Lebanon airport as Iran-backed springboard for attacks
- Gallant said the site, 20 km away from the Israeli border town of Metulla, could accommodate mid-sized aircraft
Lebanon says two dead in Israeli strike near Syria border
- An Israeli enemy strike in the Hermel district “killed two people,” the health ministry said
- A man wounded in an Israeli strike last week near Beirut had died of his injuries
BEIRUT: Lebanon said an Israeli strike near the border with Syria killed two people on Thursday, as a deadline nears for Lebanon’s army to disarm militant group Hezbollah in the country’s south.
Despite a November 2024 ceasefire that was supposed to end more than a year of hostilities between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah, Israel has kept up strikes on Lebanon and has also maintained troops in five southern areas it deems strategic.
“An Israeli enemy strike today on a vehicle in the town of Hawsh Al-Sayyed Ali in the Hermel district killed two people,” the health ministry said, with the state-run National News Agency saying the raid targeted a van.
The NNA also reported that a man wounded in an Israeli strike last week near Beirut had died of his injuries.
It identified him as a member of Lebanon’s General Security agency and said “he happened to be passing at the time of the strike as he returned from service” in Beirut.
The health ministry had said that strike targeted a vehicle on the Shouf district’s Jadra-Siblin road, around 30 kilometers (19 miles) south of the capital, killing one person and wounding five others, while an AFP photographer had seen a damaged goods truck.
On Tuesday, Lebanon’s army said a soldier was among those killed in an Israeli strike a day earlier and denied the Israeli military’s accusation that he was a Hezbollah operative.
Under heavy US pressure and fears of expanded Israeli strikes, Lebanon has committed to disarming Hezbollah, starting with the south.
The army plans to complete the group’s disarmament south of the Litani River — about 30 kilometers (19 miles) from the border with Israel — by year’s end.
Lebanese army chief Rodolphe Haykal told a military meeting on Tuesday “the army is in the process of finishing the first phase of its plan.”
More than 340 people have been killed by Israeli fire in Lebanon since the ceasefire, according to an AFP tally of Lebanese health ministry reports.
