Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed, during a speech Thursday at the United Nations General Assembly, to have located three Hezbollah precision missile sites near Beirut’s airport.
“Israel knows where you’re doing it, and Israel will not let you get away with it,” he said.
The Israeli army spokesman published a report backed by video clips and photographs that he said were taken by Israeli satellites, claiming that Hezbollah military sites were in the heart of the Lebanese capital, in a number of neighborhoods, and adjacent to the Rafik Hariri International Airport.
The Israeli military spokesman said that Hezbollah was trying in the last year to set up an infrastructure to turn surface-to-surface missiles into precision rockets in the neighborhood of Ouzai, adjacent to Beirut airport.
The Israeli report pointed to three sites used by Hezbollah. One of the alleged sites is located under a soccer field used by a Hezbollah-sponsored team; another is just north of the Rafik Hariri International Airport; and the third is underneath the Beirut port and less than 500 meters from the airport’s tarmac.
Meanwhile, Lebanese President Michel Aoun ruled out that recent Israeli threats to Lebanon would lead to an escalation on the Lebanese front. “We will defend Lebanon by all means available to us,” he said, underlining Lebanon’s commitment to the UN-sponsored ceasefire agreement.
“We will not start using any weapons against Israel and we are committed to the UN-sponsored ceasefire agreement,” Aoun said in remarks to the Russian government-funded news outlet Russia Today, as reported by the presidential office.
