IAF official: Halting sorties will harm intelligence
Senior Air Force official hints recon flights before war concentrated on border area, did not bring sufficient intelligence; adds that flights after war indicate Hizbullah rebuilding itself
A senior Air Force official said Sunday that reconnaissance flights conducted by the Israeli Air Force south of the Litany River in Lebanon are indicating intensive rehabilitation efforts by Hizbullah.
According to the official, these missions supply Israel with important intelligence that may have been missing before the second war in Lebanon.
"The fact we did not fly over Lebanon in recent years and conducted sorties close to the border only, had probably caused gaps in intelligence," the official said.
"It is difficult to estimate the affect they had on the war, but it is possible there were," the official told Ynet.
These words are said in light of Israel's official decision to continue the recon flights over Lebanon until resolution 1701 is fully implemented. The official explained that images from inside Lebanon cannot be obtained from the border area.
During the war, manned Israeli aircraft logged no less than 7,500 hours of recon time over Lebanon. IAF sources say that this is equivalent to six months of routine security missions.
In effect, the war in Lebanon was the trigger to a renewal of the recon flights over Lebanon. After Israel's withdrawal from Lebanon in 2000, the flights continued but were reduced slowly until stopping almost completely.
Flights over Gaza continue
In regards to the missions themselves, the official said that "they are treated as a flight over enemy territory. Lebanon is still an enemy, and the guidelines are still that way in order to reduce the risks involved."
"During the war," the official said, "only one missile was fired at an IAF aircraft, but it did not reach the height and did not jeopardize the mission. "
In contrast to Lebanon, the IAF is continuing flights over the Gaza Strip even after the IDF's withdrawal on a level which is even higher than what the IAF flew when the IDF was till there.
"Things change based on the situation on the ground," said the senior official.
The Air Force has understood that the terrorists are aware of the fact that they are being watched from the air and they try to use deceptive tactics in order not to bee watched.
"This is the dynamic we are dealing with and we are looking for ways to improve ourselves," he concluded.
