The Israel Air Force shot down a Hezbollah drone off the coast of Haifa on
Thursday.
IDF air defenses picked up the drone shortly after 1 p.m., and
F-16 fighter aircraft and combat helicopters scrambled to intercept
it.
Simultaneously drama unfolded in the skies in the North, as an air
force helicopter carrying Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on a visit to a
Druse village in the Western Galilee was forced to land after pilots were told
about the drone.
The hostile craft flew southward along the Lebanese
coastline when it came under the observation of the IAF.
As it was flying
about 8 kilometers off the coast of Haifa, IAF chief Maj.-Gen. Amir Eshel gave
the order to destroy the drone, and an F- 16 dispatched a missile, blowing up
its target at an altitude of 6,000 feet, IDF Spokesman Brig.- Gen. Yoav
Mordechai said.
It was not immediately clear whether the drone was armed.
The IDF was searching for the craft’s remains in the Mediterranean
Sea.
“Israel is prepared to deal with any threat posed from Syria or
Lebanon in the air, land or sea,” Netanyahu said afterward during a tour of the
Druse village of Julis.
He added that he viewed “with utmost severity the
attempt to breach our borders. We will do what it takes to defend our
citizens.”
Hezbollah said on Thursday it had not sent the drone into
Israeli airspace “Hezbollah denies that it has sent any surveillance plane
towards the occupied Palestinian land,” a statement by the Iranian-backed
Shi’ite group said.
Asked whether Hezbollah was behind the incident, an
IDF spokesman said an investigation was under way.
The incursion marked
the second such violation of Israeli airspace in six months. The IAF shot down a
drone that Hezbollah had sent from Lebanon over the Negev in October 2012. The
drone was not carrying explosives and likely had been sent on an intelligence-
gathering mission, as well as to test Israel’s air defenses.
Reuters
contributed to this report.