Hezbollah plane penetrates Israeli airspace

11/7/2004 9:30:00 PM GMT

The Lebanese Hezbollah movement said Sunday that it had flown an unmanned reconnaissance plane over northern Israel for the first time in response to Israel's repeated air violations of Lebanese airspace.

The group said that the plane, its "Mirsad One" surveillance aircraft, "flew over northern Palestine at 10:30 this morning (3:30 a.m. EDT) in its first sortie over occupied Palestine."

It also said that its new unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) flew all the way to the coastal city of Nahariya, and returned safely to its base.

The statement said that the move was a "substantial and new achievement for the Islamic resistance in Lebanon and comes as a natural response to the constant and repetitive Zionist enemy's violations of Lebanese airspace whenever it wants."

Hezbollah also said that its "Mirsad One" plane will fly above "occupied Palestine" whenever the resistance wants.

Two weeks ago, Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah said that the group was seeking to respond to Israel's “constant violations of Lebanese air space” through new means.

On the other hand, an Israeli defense official confirmed the statement. He also said that the defense ministry has started an investigation to determine how that was made possible.