Israeli officials: Lebanon army was told about Hezbollah drone sites a week before strikes, but failed to act

Lebanese authorities were told of Hezbollah’s underground drone manufacturing facilities in Beirut, but failed to act, unnamed Israeli officials tell the Kan public broadcaster.

The officials say that the Lebanese army was told about the facilities about a week before the Israel Defense Forces carried out a series of strikes on several buildings in Beirut’s southern suburbs on Thursday evening, after issuing an evacuation warning.

The strikes in Beirut hit several underground drone manufacturing facilities belonging to Hezbollah’s aerial forces, also known as Unit 127, according to the military.

Ahead of the strikes, the IDF said it had “identified that Hezbollah’s aerial unit is working to produce many thousands of UAVs, under the guidance and funding of Iranian terror officials.”

This was happening, the military said, “despite the understandings between Israel and Lebanon” as laid out in a November ceasefire agreement that halted more than a year of fighting along Israel’s northern border.