bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

paywallTypes

createdDate

publishedDate

sponsorType

urlAlias

moreOnThisArticles

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

articleSpeeches

socialHeadline

headline

images

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

sponsor

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

Agence France-Presse

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.
Separately on Monday, Israeli warplanes hit the Gaza Strip’s ruling Hamas movement in response to earlier rocket fire from the territory into Israel.
Israeli authorities also announced a punitive reduction in the flow of fuel to the strip’s main power station, meaning a deep cut in the already rationed electricity supply.
A Palestinian security source said there were no casualties.


Iran war: Russia and China veto UN resolution to reopen Strait of Hormuz

Iran allows 2 French former detainees to leave country

US and Iran near brink of escalation as Trump deadline for deal looms

‘Paper tiger’: what’s behind Donald Trump’s renewed Greenland threat?

Middle East

Lebanon’s president says Israel drone attack was a ‘declaration of war’

The building that houses the media office of Hezbollah after an alleged attack carried by an Israeli drone in the southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon on Sunday, Photo: EPA

A photograph taken from near the southern Lebanese village of Kfar Kila shows the border wall with Israel, on August 26, 2019. - The head of the Lebanese Shiiite Hezbollah movement yesterday threatened Israel after a "drone attack" on the Lebanese Shiite movement's Beirut stronghold, vowing to "do everything" to thwart future attacks. Hezbollah, considered a terrorist organisation by Israel and the United States, is a major political actor in Lebanon and a key government backer in war-torn Syria. (Photo by Mahmoud ZAYYAT / AFP)

Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah threatens Israel after Beirut ‘drone attack’

People listen to a speech by Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah being broadcast on Hezbollah's al-Manar TV channel. Photo: AP Photo

epa07793533 A handout video grab made available from al-Manar TV shows Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah delivering a speech on the second anniversary of defeating Islamic State (IS) militants in the Arsal mountains, from an undisclosed location, 25 August 2019. According to reports, Nasrallah spoke about the situation in the Palestinian territories, Lebanon, Syria, and other Arab countries, and threatened Israel with a 'painful response', saying that from now on they will down Israeli drones in Lebanese skies, hours after Hezbollah media office in Beirut was reportedly targeted by an Israeli drone.  EPA-EFE/AL-MANAR TV GRAB HANDOUT  HANDOUT EDITORIAL USE ONLY/NO SALES

epa07792277 An exterior view of the building that houses the media office of Hezbollah after an alleged attack carried by two Israeli drones in the southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, 25 August 2019. According to the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF), two Israeli drones violated the Lebanese airspace over the southern suburbs of Beirut, adding that one fell down while the second exploded causing material damage. Hezbollah media office said that the drone caused damage to its media center, hours after Israel launched air strikes in Damascus, Syria.  EPA-EFE/NABIL MOUNZER

Lebanon's Hezbollah members hold party flags as they listen to their leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah addressing his supporters via a screen during a rally marking the anniversary of the defeat of militants near the Lebanese-Syrian border, in al-Ain village, Lebanon August 25, 2019. REUTERS/Aziz Taher

Lebanon blasts Israel ‘aggression’ after two drones crash in Beirut and jets attack Syria targets

Lebanese military intelligence forensic investigators inspect the scene of the crashes. Photo: AFP

A poster of Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah is seen amid other damage inside the media office in a stronghold of the Lebanese Hezbollah group in a southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday, Aug. 25, 2019. Two Israeli drones crashed in a Hezbollah stronghold in the Lebanese capital overnight without the militants firing on them, a spokesman for the group said Sunday, saying the first fell on the roof of a building housing Hezbollah's media office while the second landed in a plot behind it. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

Lebanese security stand near the site where an Israeli drone was said to have crashed in a stronghold of the Lebanese Hezbollah group, in a southern suburb of Beirut. Photo: AP

Israel strikes Iranian, Hezbollah arms depots in Syria after rocket fire

Israel's military said its air defence systems intercepted a rocket fired from Syria and returned with strikes and air raids. Photo: AFP

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu heads a weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem on January 13, 2018. - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said today that Israel had at the weekend carried out an air strike on Iranian weapons in Syria, a rare public confirmation of such attacks. (Photo by Ariel Schalit / AP / AFP)

Israel and Syria claim to have shot down each other’s missiles in apparent tit-for-tat attacks

File photo of Israeli armoured vehicles in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. Photo: Reuters

FILE PHOTO: An Israeli soldier rides an armoured vehicle during an army drill after the visit of Israeli Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, Israel August 7, 2018. REUTERS/Amir Cohen/File photo

News

World


Attack on Palestinian base in Lebanon came hours after Hezbollah claimed it was targeted by a similar Israeli strike
Both incidents came after Israel launched strikes in neighbouring Syria to prevent an Iranian attack



Lebanon’s president said Israeli drone attack on Beirut at the weekend justified a military response.


Israel