UN urges calm on Lebanon border

By Kim Ghattas
BBC correspondent, Beirut

Hezbollah has accused Israeli warplanes of violating Lebanese airspace

The United Nations has said it is concerned about rising tension on the border between Israel and Lebanon.

The UN secretary general's envoy in southern Lebanon, Staffan de Mistura, said he had urged Beirut to exercise better control over its frontier.

Israel has intensified its over-flights of Lebanon - last week a Katyusha rocket was fired into Israel.

In the latest incident, the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah said it sent a drone flying over northern Israel.

The drone apparently took Israel by surprise.

On Sunday, it crossed Lebanon's border with Israel, flew past the Israeli army's air defences, and kept going for 9km (six miles) until the Israeli coastal town of Nahariya.

According to a statement from Hezbollah - the Shia guerrilla movement - the drone's mission lasted 20 minutes and the vehicle returned safely to base.

It is the first time Hezbollah had used a drone.

Until Sunday it was unknown that the guerrilla movement had such planes.

Hezbollah did not give details about the capabilities of its unmanned reconnaissance plane, or say whether it had more than one.

But the group said there would be more such over-flights, which it said was a legitimate way to confront the Zionist violations of Lebanon's sovereignty.

Israeli army 'embarrassed'

The Israeli army has said it believes Hezbollah was using an Iranian-made drone.

The incident was seized upon by the Israeli press. Several newspapers carried the story on their front page, saying the Israeli army had been embarrassed by this serious air breach.

The Israeli media criticised the army for failing to anticipate this new Hezbollah tactic, and warned that next time the drone could be carrying a bomb.

But Lebanon's Information Minister, Eli Ferzli, said Hezbollah had resorted to using a drone because Israel was not responding to international pressure to put an end to its over-flights of Lebanon.