Lebanon complains to UN over Israeli sonic booms

Lebanon’s permanent mission to the U.N. has filed a complaint to the Security Council over the repeated breaking of the sound barrier over the Lebanese regions by Israeli warplanes, including over the capital Beirut.

The complaint comes at the instructions of caretaker Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib.

“These violations represent a flagrant breach of Lebanon’s sovereignty and airspace and of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701 (2006),” the complaint says.

The mock raids and sonic booms “also violate several stipulations of international humanitarian law, which prohibits all forms of collective punishment and intimidation practiced by Israel through terrorizing civilians and sowing panic among them,” the complaint adds, noting that such practices “especially affect the most vulnerable segments of society, such as children.”

Israeli warplanes have regularly broken the sound barrier over south Lebanon since the beginning of the current Israel-Hezbollah conflict in October 2023, but the sonic booms have become more frequent over Beirut and its suburbs in recent weeks, amid soaring tensions between Israel and Hezbollah over the assassination of top military commander Fouad Shukur.