Israeli warplanes fly over Lebanon despite French warnings

Israeli Air Force (IAF) flights carried out their overflights over Lebanon on Monday, despite a French warning to halt such missions, Israel's local newspaper Ha' aretz reported on its website edition.

The IAF's flights flew low over Beirut Monday, a day after Israel rejected a call by France's Defence Minister to halt violations of its neighbor's airspace, said the report.

Meanwhile, four Israeli warplanes conducted mock raid over southern Lebanon and the residents also saw them flying low over the port city of Tyre, causing a sonic boom while Muslims celebrated their Eid al-Fitr.

The Lebanese government and the United Nations say the overflights, which Israel had continued to conduct after it ended its 22-year occupation of south Lebanon in 2000, violate both the latest truce and the terms of Israel's earlier pullout.

On Sunday, Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz said that Israel flights over Lebanon would continue, shrugging off outside criticism of its violation of Lebanese air.

Peretz said at a cabinet meeting that "the legitimacy for overflights increases" as the intelligence accumulated about Syria and Iran are intensifying efforts to transfer arms to Hezbollah.

He accused the Lebanese government of failing to honor its obligations under the UN Resolution 1701 to keep Syria and Iran's weapons from reaching Hezbollah.

Early on Friday, French Defence Minister Michele Alliot-Marie at UN called Israel's violations of Lebanese airspace "extremely dangerous" and said they should stop immediately.

She said an Israeli aircraft may mistakenly be seen by UN troops as having hostile intent, possibly triggering a "very serious incident."

France, which currently leads the UN peacekeeping force in south Lebanon, warned that it might open fire on the intruding aircraft.

Source: Xinhua