Hezbollah released on Tuesday footage of airports and seaports in the Israeli city of Haifa shot by a surveillance aircraft in wake of Israel’s latest threat to escalate the fight with Lebanon should both parties fail to reach a political solution to end the war in southern Lebanon.
The 9:31 minute video, shot by Hezbollah’s “Hoodhood” aircraft, showed images of Israel’s Rafael Advanced Defense Systems facility and Haifa’s civilian and military port.
It also showed logistic facilities at the port, oil and chemical weapons containers, and military and commercial ships.
Footage of commercial and residential areas - home to 260,000 people - in the Krayot area on the outskirts of Haifa were also shown. Haifa itself lies 27 kilometers south of the Lebanese border.
Hezbollah said in the video that this was the first time it releases aerial footage from an area this deep in Israeli territory. It added that more videos will follow.
The party had already been releasing footage of specific areas it has targeted in its attacks on Israel.
The latest footage – should it be verified – demonstrates Hezbollah’s ability to breach Israeli air defenses, said Israeli media.
Media close to Hezbollah said the video was a “deterrence message” to Israel.
Meanwhile, on the ground, Hezbollah resumed on Tuesday its attacks against Israel after an undeclared truce that started on Saturday night ahead of the Eid al-Adha holiday.
In two separate statements, the Iran-backed party announced it launched a drone attack against an Israeli Merkava tank in the Hadab Yaren area.
It added that its fighters launched a drone attack targeting Israeli artillery and a gathering of officers and soldiers.
Both attacks struck their targets, it stressed.
Hezbollah explained the attacks were retaliation to Israel’s assassination of a party member in the town of al-Chehabieh on Monday.
Israeli media said it intercepted three drones in the north and that its defenses launched missiles to intercept “hostile aerial targets”.
An Israeli drone, meanwhile, struck a car north of the Lebanese city of Tyre, wounding seven people, including civilians. The identities of the passengers were not disclosed.
Israel also carried out air raids on Kfar Kila and al-Taybe.
An Israeli government spokesman said on Monday Hezbollah had launched over 5,000 attacks against Israel since the eruption of the war on Gaza on October 7. Hezbollah said last week it had carried out over 2,100 operations against Israel since the eruption of the conflict.
