BEIRUT: The Lebanese army said it opened fire at two of three Israeli drones that breached Lebanese airspace on Wednesday evening in the south of the country near the Israeli border, and all three returned to Israeli airspace.
They first entered Lebanese airspace at 19:35 local time and returned to Israel after shots were fired, the army statement said. A second drone returned to Israel without being fired at. The army fired at a third one which also returned back to Israel, it said.
A security source told Reuters that troops fired shots from M16 assault rifles. Lebanon's President Michel Aoun had said on Monday his country had a right to defend itself after two Israeli drones crashed in Beirut suburbs on Sunday.
The Israeli military spokeswoman said "we are checking the report".
Earlier, Hezbollah’s deputy leader Sheikh Naim Qassem said the Iran-backed movement will retaliate.
“I rule out that the atmosphere is one of war, it is one of a response to an attack,” he told Russia’s RT Arabic channel in an interview on Tuesday night. “Everything will be decided at its time.”
Qassem said that Hezbollah will not be "intimidated by threats of war in order not to retaliate. There was an aggression and we said we will retaliate and this is what will happen."
He refused to elaborate, saying that "we want the strike to be surprising and therefore, it is not in our interest to reveal more details."
Qassem's comments came just days after an alleged Israeli drone crashed in a Hezbollah stronghold in southern Beirut while another exploded and crashed nearby.
