Report: Hezbollah planning to 'force' IAF to cease overflights
By Yoav Stern and Amos Harel Haaretz Last update - 07:49 01/08/2008
www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1007605.html

Hezbollah is planning to take "practical measures" to counter Israel air
force overflights of Lebanon, according to Thursday's edition of the
Lebanese daily Al-Akhbar, which is considered sympathetic to the Shi'ite
group.

It quoted a source who said that Hezbollah is "close to adopting practical
measures that will force Israel to cease the overflights."

The report is in line with Israeli intelligence assessments that predicted
that following the completion of the Israel-Hezbollah prisoner swap,
Hezbollah would seek excuses to resume its struggle against Israel in order
to justify its refusal to disarm.

Hezbollah has cultivated an image as Lebanon's "protector" against what it
describes as Israeli aggression.

There have been a number of reports in the Arab media recently on the
planned deployment of anti-aircraft missile batteries in the Lebanese
mountains, whose purpose would be to disrupt the flights of Israeli aircraft
over the country.

Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah said recently that the group
would adopt a new "defensive strategy" in Lebanon, with the cooperation of
the country's other political groups.

Israeli military sources believe that Hezbollah is planning to alter its
military policy toward Israel by carrying out operations inside Lebanon
rather than along the border, in order to bolster its legitimacy among the
Lebanese public.

On Wednesday, for the first time since the Second Lebanon War, the
organization published a condemnation of Israeli overflights and said that
those responsible for stopping them are the government in Beirut and the
United Nations. It accused Israel of violating Lebanese sovereignty by
flying into its airspace and sailing into its territorial waters, and
accused UN peacekeepers in the country of failing to put an end to the
violations.

Following the Israel Defense Forces' withdrawal from southern Lebanon in May
2000, the air force stopped overflights of Lebanon. However, they were
resumed in October of that same year after Hezbollah abducted three IDF
soldiers on the border. Since then, the air force has carried out hundreds
of intelligence and surveillance flights. Israel maintains that the flights
are necessary for its security, despite protests by the
Lebanese government and the UN.

Israel charges that Hezbollah continues to rearm and receive training from
Iran, in violation of the cease-fire accord that brought an end to the
Second Lebanon War in August 2006.