Hezbollah says downed Israeli drone in south Lebanon

BEIRUT: Lebanon’s Hezbollah group said it shot down an Israeli drone in southern Lebanon on Monday, nearly five months into near-daily cross-border clashes sparked by the Gaza war.

Hezbollah’s “air defence unit shot down… a large Israeli Hermes 450 drone with a surface-to-air missile” in south Lebanon, the group said in a statement.

The group said its “fighters’ eyes will remain vigilant and will keep shooting down enemy aircraft and preventing them from achieving their aggressive goals”.

Since October 8, Hezbollah and its arch-foe Israel have been exchanging fire, but strikes have been largely contained to the border area — although Israel has struck elsewhere in Lebanon, including in Beirut.

Since October, at least 278 people have been killed on the Lebanese side, most of them Hezbollah fighters but also including 44 civilians, according to an AFP tally.

On the Israeli side, 10 soldiers and six civilians have been killed, according to the Israeli army.

The clashes have displaced tens of thousands of civilians on both sides of the border.