Israel says it shot down three Hezbollah drones heading for Karish gas field
One of the Hezbollah drones was shot down by a fighter jet, an Israeli army source told AFP.
AP - Tsafrir Abayov
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Located in the Mediterranean, the Karish gas field has been at the heart of an upsurge in tensions in recent weeks between Israel and Lebanon.
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Three drones approaching Israel's economic waters have been intercepted
," the Israeli military said in a statement, adding that the unmanned craft had been launched by Hezbollah and were heading towards the Karish offshore field.
One drone was intercepted by a fighter jet, and the other two by a warship, Israeli military sources said.
This incident comes the day after the assumption of duties in Israel by centrist Prime Minister Yair Lapid, who officially succeeded Naftali Bennett on Friday.
“
I stand before you and say to all who want us gone, from Gaza to Tehran, from the sides of Lebanon to Syria: do not test us!
Israel knows how to use its force against any threat and against any enemy
,” the new head of government said in his first speech on Saturday evening.
Gas stirs up tensions
The discovery in recent years of vast gas deposits in the eastern Mediterranean has whetted the appetite of the neighboring countries and fueled border disputes.
Lebanon and Israel, two neighboring countries officially still in a state of war, began unprecedented negotiations in October 2020 under the aegis of Washington to delimit their maritime border, in order to remove obstacles to hydrocarbon prospecting.
But talks were suspended in May 2021 following disputes over the surface of the disputed area including the Karish gas field.
For the Jewish state, the Karish field is located in Israeli territory "
several kilometers from the area covered by the negotiations
" with Lebanon, which also suggests an analysis of satellite images carried out by the Israeli daily Haaretz.
For Beirut, this deposit is in disputed waters.
Tensions resurfaced in early June
with the arrival at the Karish field of a ship chartered on behalf of the Jewish state by the British exploration company Energean Plc.
On June 9, Hezbollah, whose influence is predominant in Lebanon, affirmed that “
the immediate objective should be to prevent the enemy from extracting oil and gas from the Karish gas field
”.
Its leader Hassan Nasrallah then warned that his movement "
will not stand idly by in the face of the looting of Lebanon's natural wealth (...) which represents the only hope of salvation for the Lebanese people
".
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Also to listen: Orient hebdo – Offshore natural gas, a chance for the eastern Mediterranean?
(
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AFP)
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