‘A Declaration of War’: Israeli Military Incursions into Lebanon Stoke Tensions

• ‘A Declaration of War’: Israeli Military Incursions into Lebanon Stoke Tensions
  by https://www.middleeasteye.net/
  Air strikes on a Palestinian group on Monday and the downing of two drones in Beirut on Sunday prompt Lebanese leaders to raise rhetoric
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  A series of apparent Israeli military incursions into Lebanon over the past two days have ratcheted up tensions between the neighbours, and prompted Lebanon’s president to suggest Israel has made a “declaration of war”.
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  Before dawn on Monday Israeli air strikes targeted a Palestinian faction in eastern Lebanon, Lebanese state media and the group said. “Three hostile strikes” after midnight hit Lebanon’s eastern mountains near Qusaya town, about 5km from the Syrian border, where the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – General Command (PFLP-GC) has military posts, the National News Agency said. 
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  The PFLP-GC said the raid was conducted by Israel, and it responded with anti-aircraft fire. The strikes came just hours after Hassan Nasrallah, the head of Lebanese movement Hezbollah, threatened Israel after two drones fell in Beirut’s southern suburbs, the group’s stronghold, in what he described as a targeted “drone attack”.
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  A day later, Lebanon’s President Michel Aoun framed the drone incident as an attack on Lebanese sovereignty. “What happened was similar to a declaration of war which allows us to resort to our right to defending our sovereignty,” Aoun’s office quoted him as saying on Twitter.
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  United Nations Spokesman Stephane Dujarric on Monday said the UN was unable to confirm the reports about the incident, but called on all sides to use “maximum restraint both in action and rhetoric”, AFP news agency reported. “It is imperative for all to avoid an escalation and abide by relevant Security Council resolutions,” Dujarric continued. 
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