In a threatening message to Israel, Hezbollah releases surveillance footage of Haifa

Iran-backed Hezbollah group, an ally of the Palestinian militant unit Hamas, on Tuesday (Jun 18) released a nine-minute, 31-second-long drone footage, which showed aerial video of locations in Israel. The reconnaissance drones were apparently flying over northern Israel, including the Haifa port, but it's not sure when exactly it was filmed.

Hezbollah has often launched drones, even with explosives, towards northern Israel in recent months. Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, who is the group's head, said in November that they had been sending surveillance drones over Haifa, which is 27 kilometres from the Lebanese border.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has not commented on the video, which was shared by the groups associated with Hezbollah, including on its Telegram channel.

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The Guardian said in a report that Hezbollah advised viewers on several channels to "watch and analyse" it.

The militant group said that the video has "important scenes". The video included a cryptic message that it would show what the "hoopoe had brought back". Notably, the hoopoe is the name of a drone and also a bird that is regarded as a messenger in Arabic mythology.

The video pinpointed what Hezbollah said were Israeli military, defence and energy facilities, as well as civilian and military infrastructure.

Watch the video here:

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This comes amid US envoy Amos Hochstein called for the "urgent" de-escalation of cross-border exchanges of fire between Hezbollah and Israeli forces.

"The conflict... between Israel and Hezbollah has gone on for long enough. It's in everyone's interest to resolve it quickly and diplomatically -- that is both achievable and it is urgent," the presidential envoy said on a visit to Beirut.

During his visit, Hochstein met with Lebanese parliament speaker Nabih Berri, a key Hezbollah ally, a day after holding talks in Jerusalem with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

"Speaker Berri and I had a very good discussion," Hochstein said.

Referring to the demarcation line between Israel and Lebanon, he said, "We discussed the current security and political situation in Lebanon as well as the deal on the table right now with respect to Gaza, which also provides an opportunity to end the conflict across the Blue Line."

Disclaimer: WION takes utmost care to accurately and responsibly report ongoing developments on the Israel-Palestine conflict after the Hamas attacks. However, we cannot independently verify the authenticity of all statements, photos and videos.

(With inputs from agencies)