Israel’s Lebanon flights almost drew fire, France says

France demanded Thursday that Israel stop staging mock raids over Lebanon after French peacekeepers came within seconds of shooting down Israeli warplanes.

Israeli officials said the flights were needed to monitor Lebanese compliance with United Nations demands and that they were working with the French-led U.N. peacekeeping force to avoid misunderstandings.

The incident raised tensions nearly three months into the cease-fire that halted Israel’s war against Hezbollah militants in Lebanon.

On Oct. 31, Israeli F-15 fighter planes nose-dived repeatedly over French peacekeepers’ positions in southern Lebanon, French Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie told lawmakers Wednesday night.

The planes were “in attack position,” a spokesman for the French General Staff, Capt. Christophe Prazuck, told reporters. French troops responded by readying an antiaircraft missile and were seconds from firing, he said.

“Our troops barely avoided a catastrophe,” Alliot-Marie told Parliament. “Our troops find themselves in a position where they have to fire in legitimate self-defense.”

Defense Ministry officials would not elaborate on why French troops decided not to fire or explain why they waited eight days to announce the incident.

The Defense Ministry and Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy demanded Thursday that the flights stop. The foreign minister also summoned the Israeli ambassador to express “serious concern” about the incident.

“The overflights undermine the position” of the U.N. peacekeeping force, said Nadim Shehadi, a Middle East expert at Chatham House, a London think tank.

U.N. peacekeepers reported 14 Israeli air violations on Oct. 31, including three over the headquarters of the French battalion in the southern Lebanese town of Froun.

The peacekeeping chief in Lebanon, Maj. Gen. Alain Pellegrini of France, said last month that the flyovers violated the cease-fire and warned that force might be used to stop them.

Israeli military officials reiterated Thursday that the flights were for intelligence-gathering and needed to monitor the Lebanese government’s compliance with the U.N. resolution that stopped the fighting. They said Lebanon had failed to prevent weapons from being smuggled to Hezbollah.

Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said he could not confirm the Oct. 31 incident.

“We are taking steps to improve coordination so that such a thing would not happen,” he said.