Hizbollah gunners fired anti-aircraft rounds at Israeli jets flying over southern Lebanon overnight, the group’s radio station reported this morning.
Officials of the United Nations (UN) peacekeeping force in south Lebanon said anti-aircraft rounds were fired from the coastal area of Naqoura and from Markaba further east, but they could not confirm Israeli planes crossed into Lebanon.
Despite repeated UN condemnation, Israeli jets regularly fly over Lebanon, occasionally provoking anti-aircraft fire from the Syrian and Iranian-backed Hizbollah guerrilla group.
Hizbollah, which was instrumental in driving Israeli forces out of Lebanon in May 2000 after a 22-year occupation, controls the Lebanese side of the border with Israel.
The UN considers Israel's withdrawal from Lebanon as complete, but Hizbollah continues to attack Israeli soldiers in the disputed Shebaa Farms area near the border between Lebanon, Israel and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.