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Israel Says Lebanon Flights to Continue

Though the French commander of UN peacekeeping forces in Lebanon has hinted that his troops may in the future fire upon Israeli warplanes making overflights of Lebanese territory, Israeli officials insist that so long as UN Security Council Resolution 1701`s provisions for preventing the rearmament of Hizballah are not being enforced, the Jewish state will continue to conduct patrols. 1701 called both for the cessation of hostilities between Israel and Hizballah, the disarmament of Hizballah, and the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Lebanese territory.

Israel originally left Lebanon in 2000, just months before the outbreak of a period of violence with the Palestinians which continues to this day. Hizballah conducted a cross-border attack following this withdrawal, but Israel`s reaction then was muted compared to a similar attack this past July which led to a major war being launched by Israel to retrieve the soldiers kidnapped by the Islamist terrorist organization, which receives most of its financing and supplies from Iran and Syria.

The UN certified Israel`s withdrawal in 2000, but Hizballah insists that the Shebaa Farms area - which both the UN and Israel say originally belonged to Syria - occupied by Israel following the 1967 war is Lebanese land. Hizballah commonly uses the Shebaa Farms pretext for launching attacks against the Jewish state, though it is hardly a secret that Hizballah`s ultimate goal with regards to Israel is the destruction of what it terms "the Zionist entity".