BEIRUT, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- Israeli warplanes broke Tuesday afternoon the sound barrier twice over Beirut, the Lebanese capital, and its suburbs, causing loud booms a few minutes ahead of Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah's speech.
The sonic booms shattered glasses in Dahieh, Beirut's southern suburbs, and created fear and anxiety among local residents. Some even started packing to seek shelter in mountainous areas.
Nasrallah was set to begin an address at around 5 p.m. local time (1400 GMT) to mark the one week since the killing of the Lebanese armed group's senior military commander, Fouad Shokor, in an Israeli strike in Beirut's southern suburbs.
Nasrallah said that the Israeli warplanes might deliberately break the sound barrier during the mourning ceremony to intimidate the people at the memorial.
Israeli warplanes have recently intensified their violations of the sound barrier in the airspace of most Lebanese regions, sometimes even resulting in building damage and collapses, Lebanese military sources previously told Xinhua.
The sources reported that the sonic booms, caused by warplanes flying faster than sound, occur two or three times a day and are especially terrifying when the planes are flying at a low altitude.
Caution prevails in Lebanon following Israel's killing of Shokor and Nasrallah had threatened a definite and painful response at the appropriate time and place.
Tensions along the Lebanon-Israel border escalated on Oct. 8, 2023, following a barrage of rockets launched by the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah toward Israel in solidarity with Hamas' attack on Israel the day before. Israel then retaliated by firing heavy artillery toward southeastern Lebanon. ■
