Click to see full-size image. Source: the Israeli Ministry of Defense.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has accused Iran of building an airport in southern Lebanon, 20 kilometers from the separation line with Israel, in cooperation with Hezbollah for “terror purposes”.
Speaking at an annual conference of the Institute for Counter-Terrorism Policy (ICT) at Reichman University in Herzliya on September 11, Gallant presented photos of the airport, being built in the Qalaat Jabbour mountain region.
“In the pictures, you can see the Iranian flag flying over the runways, from which the ayatollah regime plans to operate against the citizens of Israel,” Gallant said, according to The Times of Israel. “In other words: the land is Lebanese, the control is Iranian, and the target is Israel.”
Gallant stressed that the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) will not hesitate to use lethal force in any future conflict, warning that Hezbollah and Lebanon will pay “heavy and painful prices.”
Israel’s Channel 14 reported later, citing Israeli defense officials, that Hezbollah is planning to operate Iranian-made drones from the airport.
The construction of the airport began in November of last year, according to the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation, also known as Kan. The broadcaster said that the runway was asphalted between July and August.
Click to see full-size image. Source: the Israeli Ministry of Defense.
Hezbollah has been operating reconnaissance and attack drones since the early 2000s. The group reportedly built its drone capabilities with help from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the Syrian Arab Army.
The aim of the small airport is likely to support Hezbollah drone operations in peacetime only, as it would be very easy for the IDF to destroy it in any future conflict.
Hezbollah has not commented on the Israeli revelation yet. While the group’s supporters celebrated the airport on social media, describing it as another achievement of the “resistance,” its opponents argued that it was a violation of Lebanon’s sovereignty.
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žid musí mať zrejme jasnovidnú guľu. inak si to nedokážem vysvetliť.
-_- majú jasnovidných démonov.
lebanon and hezbollah have every right to build and operate military airfields on their territory, just as the khazar kikes do. the most privileged, entitled people in the world. only they can have airbases, stealth fighters, nukes, and a strong military. no one else! otherwise youre antisemitic! goblin demons
they are completely obsessed 24/7 with iran…
it seems iran’s clear lead in affordable drone technology could well prove a game changer in the middle east and elsewhere. if one good thing has come out of the ukr conflict, it is the realisation that $multi-billion high tech, high maintenance corporate weapon systems are starting to look like cumbersome dinosaurs. extinction surely looms for western colonialists and occupiers…
o líbano tem todo direito de se defender.