Israeli jets broke the sound barrier over Beirut today, following an Israeli raid on Syrian troops in Lebanon and an exchange of fire with Lebanon's Hizbollah guerrillas across a disputed border zone.
Witnesses heard sonic booms in Beirut, and also saw Israeli jets circling over the southern city of Tyre.
The flights come on the heels of a cycle of strikes and counterstrikes beginning with a Hizbollah missile attack on Israeli positions in the Shebaa Farms region on Friday which wounded at least one soldier.
Israel, which says it will make Syria pay for the actions of the Hizbollah fighters it supports, then countered by striking a Syrian radar and anti-aircraft position in eastern Lebanon on Sunday, wounding at least one Lebanese and two Syrian soldiers.
Hizbollah responded with an attack on an Israeli radar installation in Shebaa Farms, which lies at the junction of the Lebanese border and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
Israel has regularly violated Lebanese airspace since pulling out of southern Lebanon last year after a 22-year occupation, partly due to pressure from Hizbollah fighters.
The United Nations' envoy to south Lebanon last week said he received a pledge from Israel to stop overflights of Lebanese cities, which the U.N. calls a violation of the terms of Israel's pullout.
The UN sees that pullout as complete and does not endorse claims by Beirut and Damascus that Shebaa Farms is Lebanese.
Hizbollah vows to drive Israel from the area, and is holding three Israeli soldiers seized there last year, demanding that Israel free all its Lebanese and other Arab prisoners in exchange for the soldiers' release.