Israel no longer has unhindered aerial superiority over Lebanon, Israel’s outgoing air force chief, Maj. Gen Amikam Norkin told Kan News on Tuesday.

Norkin said that following the near-downing of an Israeli drone by an anti-aircraft missile about a year ago, Israel reduced the number of surveillance flights it carries out over Lebanon, impeding Israel’s intelligence capabilities.

In February, Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah boasted about Hezbollah’s improved air defenses, claiming that it has the technology to turn thousands of missiles in its possession into precision-guided munitions.

In addition to the Hezbollah threat in Lebanon, Israeli defense officials fear there will be increasing Iranian entrenchment in neighboring Syria due to demographic shifts in the Golan Heights, Yisrael Hayom reported on Wednesday.

According to the resort, the Shiite population in Syria has increased and Iran and Hezbollah are likely to exploit the increasingly dire socieoeconomic situation to recurit Shiite youth, like they did in Lebanon.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)