Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah to "calm down" after he said his party was preparing a response to the crash of two Israeli drones in a Beirut suburb.
"I heard what Nasrallah said. I suggest to Nasrallah to calm down. He knows well that Israel knows how to defend itself and to pay back its enemies," Netanyahu said in a speech.
He also sent a message to Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani, whom Israel accuses of masterminding a drone attack from Syria that it thwarted with its airstrike.
Netanyahu said: "Be careful with your words and even more so be careful with your actions."
In a speech on Sunday, Nasrallah, whose Iran-backed party fought a month-long war with Israel in 2006, accused Israel of carrying out a suicide drone attack earlier that day.
"I say to the Israeli army on the border from tonight, stand guard (on high alert). Wait for us one, two, three, four days," Nasrallah said.
One drone fell and a second exploded near the ground and caused some damage to Hezbollah's media center in the southern suburbs of the capital which it dominates. Israel has not claimed responsibility for the incident.
Only hours later, a Palestinian faction said Israeli drones had struck a military position it holds in Lebanon’s Bekaa valley before dawn on Monday.
Andrea Tenenti, spokesman for the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) that patrols the border with Israel, told Lebanon's state news agency NNA that the situation in the area remains quiet.
"UNIFIL continues to work with the parties to ensure that there are no misunderstandings or incidents that may endanger the cessation of hostilities," Tenenti said, referring to UN Security Council resolution 1701 that called for an end to the fighting in 2006.
President Michel Aoun said on Monday that Lebanon had a right to defend itself, likening Israeli drone strikes to a “declaration of war”.
“We are a people seeking peace, not war, and we don’t accept anyone threatening us in any war.”
Hezbollah said on Monday the two “rigged drones” were sent to cause blasts in Beirut’s suburbs, with the first failing and the other exploding. Its statement said experts had taken apart the first drone and found it was carrying a bomb that weighed 5.5 kg (12 lb).
The 2006 war killed nearly 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in Lebanon and 158 people in Israel, mostly soldiers.
