Lebanon's army said Tuesday it fired anti-aircraft rounds at four Israeli warplanes which flew at low altitude over South Lebanon. A spokesman for the Israeli army said it was checking the report of the incident. “The army's anti-aircraft guns fired in the direction of four Phantom-type enemy Israeli planes that had been overflying the (southeastern) Hasbaya region at low altitude since this (Tuesday) morning,” an army spokesman said. By mid-morning the planes were still conducting their exercises in the region, he added. The army publishes almost daily reports of Israeli violations of Lebanese air space. But it rarely opens fire unless the Israeli planes fly within range of its guns. Israeli infringements of Lebanese airspace are a breach of UN Security Council Resolution 1701 which ended the devastating 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah. Israel argues that the overflights are necessary to monitor what it says is massive arms smuggling by Hezbollah in breach of the same resolution. Israel relies heavily on air supremacy and its air raids destroyed large districts of the Hezbollah-dominated southern suburbs of Beirut and several towns and villages in south Lebanon during the 2006 war. Hezbollah has said it has the right to acquire air-defense weapons and to use them against Israeli warplanes.
