BEIRUT: A
pro-Syrian Palestinian group yesterday accused Israel of carrying out a drone
attack on one of its positions in Lebanon, hours after Hezbollah claimed it was
targeted by a similar Israeli strike. A spokesman for the Popular Front for the
Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC), which has close ties with
Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah and Syria's government, said the strike
caused only limited material damage. "It was an Israeli strike with a
drone," spokesman Anwar Raja said.

There were no
casualties, he said, as "the position targeted had been evacuated"
before the alleged strike. Lebanon's state National News Agency said
"three hostile strikes" after midnight hit near the eastern town of
Qusaya "where the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine - General
Command has military posts". "They responded will a barrage of
anti-aircraft fire," it said. There was no immediate comment from Israel.

Qusaya is only about
five kilometers from the Syrian border. The PFLP-GC has positions in Lebanon's
eastern Bekaa Valley as well as in Al-Naaemeh just south of Beirut. In July
2015, a security official said a blast at a PFLP-GC base in Qusaya wounded
seven people, while the Palestinian group blamed it on an Israeli strike. Raja
said the latest attack was Israel "saying that it is able to strike the
axis of the resistance wherever it wants" referring to anti-Israeli forces
like Hezbollah and its ally Iran.

He also denounced
the strikes as "provocation" after Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah
on Sunday threatened Israel over what he described as a targeted "drone
attack" on his group's stronghold in the south of Beirut. "The time
when Israeli aircraft come and bombard parts of Lebanon is over,"
Nasrallah said. "I say to the Israeli army along the border, from tonight
be ready and wait for us," he added. "What happened yesterday will
not pass."

Hezbollah,
considered a terrorist organization by Israel and the United States, is a major
political actor in Lebanon and also a key backer of the government in war-torn
Syria. The latest incident also came after Israel on Saturday launched strikes
in neighboring Syria to prevent what it said was an Iranian attack on the
Jewish state. Nasrallah said the strike in Syria killed two Hezbollah members.
Israel did not confirm the alleged "drone attack" on Hezbollah's
stronghold.

New settler homes

In another
development, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday ordered hundreds
of new settler homes to be built near the site of a bomb attack that killed an
Israeli teen in the occupied West Bank. The homemade bomb on Friday near the
settlement of Dolev, northwest of Ramallah, killed 17-year-old Rina Shnerb and
wounded her father Eitan and brother Dvir in what the military called a terror
attack. Israeli security forces have detained a number of Palestinian suspects
but say the investigation is still under way.

An
English-language statement from Netanyahu's office said he ordered that plans
be submitted at the next meeting of planning authorities for "the
establishment of a new neighborhood in Dolev with approximately 300 new
residential housing units". Settler leaders often say after attacks on
Israelis that the right response is settlement growth. "We will deepen our
roots and strike at our enemies," the statement quoted Netanyahu as
saying. "We will continue to strengthen and develop settlement."

Netanyahu and his
right-wing allies draw significant support from the settlement movement and
they will be fighting what looks like being a tough general election on
September 17. Palestinians sporadically attack Israelis in the West Bank,
occupied by Israel since the Six-Day War of 1967, but bombings have become
rare. Recent attacks have mostly involved guns, knives and car ramming. Around
600,000 Israelis live in settlements in the West Bank and annexed east
Jerusalem, next to some three million Palestinians. All settlements are viewed
as illegal under international law, which Israel disputes.- Agencies