In this Thursday, December 13, 2018 file photo, an Israeli soldier looks out from one of their new positions, near the southern border village of Mays al-Jabal, Lebanon. (AP)

Asharq Al-Awsat

Israel's military said on Saturday it had ordered extra forces to deploy its northern command as tensions remained high with Lebanon's Hezbollah party.

The army said its "ground forces, air, navy and intelligence forces improved their preparedness for various scenarios in the northern command area." It said the measures had been taken in the past week.

"Reserve soldiers have received a message regarding the relevant time they need to deploy," the army said in a statement.

Tensions have been high throughout the week after two suspected Israeli drones went down in Hezbollah’s stronghold in Beirut’s southern suburbs on Sunday.

The Lebanese army and Iran-backed Hezbollah said one exploded and one crashed, causing damage to Hezbollah’s media center.

A security official in the region has described the target of the drone strikes as linked to precision-guided missile projects.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday accused Iran and Hezbollah of racing to build a missile-production program in Lebanon, vowing to destroy the ambitious project and issuing a stern warning to his enemies to "be careful."

Hezbollah denies harboring missile factories. While the party’s leader boasts about having highly accurate missiles, he denies that the group produces them.

Israel and Hezbollah battled to a stalemate in a monthlong war in 2006.

Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, a military spokesman, said in the years after the outbreak of the Syrian civil war in 2011, the army was successful in thwarting attempts by Iran to smuggle guided missiles to Hezbollah through Syria, and a later effort to convert existing Hezbollah rockets into guided missiles.

More recently, he said Israel has identified efforts by Iran and Hezbollah to establish a missile-production industry inside Lebanon.

He said Iran "has not only relinquished" its efforts. "They have intensified them," he said. He described "more efforts, more money, more operatives and more pressure from Iran."

"Iran is endangering Lebanon," Conricus said. He accused Iran of using Lebanese civilians as "human shields."