Israeli warplanes swooped low over Lebanese villages Oct. 7 in a menacing show of force apparently aimed at Hezbollah the day after a mysterious incursion by an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). The Israeli Air Force shot down the drone shortly after it crossed into southern Israel from the Mediterranean, passing “over settlements and military bases in the Negev,” the IAF said. The craft’s launch point is unknown. Israeli officials believe the UAV may have been on a mission to perform surveillance of the Dimona nuclear complex. Israeli politicians have been quick to draw their own conclusions. “It is an Iranian drone that was launched by Hezbollah,” Knesset member Miri Regev, a former chief spokeswoman for the Israeli military, wrote on her Twitter feed. “Hezbollah and Iran continue to try to collect information in every possible way in order to harm Israel.” (Slate, AP, Oct. 7; JP, Oct. 6)
The were reports of an Iranian drone shot down in Yemen four years ago.
UAV
Israel shoots down another drone
Hezbollah denied April 25 that it had send a drone over Israel, hours after the Israeli air force said it shot down an unmanned aircraft off the country’s northern coast. “Hezbollah denies sending any unmanned drone towards occupied Palestine,” the movement’s television channel al-Manar said, without elaborating.
Israel’s military said in a statement: “An unmanned aircraft (UAV) was identified approaching the coast of Israel and was successfully intercepted by IAF aircraft five nautical miles off the coast of Haifa at approximately 2:00 p.m. today.” (AFP, APril 25)