Alwaght- Two Patriot surface-to-air missiles left clear trails of smoke and triggered air raid alarms Sunday in the northern occupied territories where the Israeli occupation forces attempted to down an unidentified unmanned drone that had entered the airspace under their control from Syria.
A military official told Channel 2 television that an air-to-air missile was also fired by an Israeli jet— totalling in three failed attempts to shoot down the aircraft.
"Two Patriot air defense missiles were fired toward a drone which infiltrated Israeli airspace in the central Golan Heights. The drone returned to Syria," an IOF statement said.
Tel Aviv has launched an investigation into the origin and mission of the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) but up until now it has not been confirmed. In the meantime, Israeli experts have referred to the possibility that it may have been sent by Hezbollah, the Lebanese resistance group, which is taking part in the anti-terrorism battles alongside the Syrian army.
The UAV is believed to be Russian-made and unarmed.
Anis al-Naqqash, a Lebanon-based political analyst tweeted on Sunday that the drone belonged to Hezbollah. According to the expert, it succeeded in its mission to photograph IOF manoeuvres in the occupied Golan Heights. The drone safely returned to Syrian airspace when it was targeted.
“Hezbollah official reveals Hezbollah operated this drone as part of an operation, emphasizes that the drone is safe,” al-Naqqash announced.
The Israeli military issued a statement in which it announced the failed attempts to intercept the drone and claimed that it constituted a breach of the occupying Zionist regime’s sovereignty.
“The IDF will not tolerate a breach of the State of Israel’s sovereignty,” the statement read after the incident.
The Israeli air force, meanwhile, continues to violate the sovereignty of its neighbors. Israeli warplanes frequently breach Lebanon’s aerial sovereignty by violating its airspace.
They have also struck Syrian territory several times under the pretext of assassinating Hezbollah members and targeting convoys transporting weapons and ammunition to the resistance group.
Closer to the border of the occupied Palestinian territory, the Israelis have shot down several aircraft that had been roaming along the border with Syria in the past few years. The IOF downed a drone in August 2014 and a Syrian fighter aircraft in September of the same year.
If Hezbollah was indeed behind the drone, the group has most likely managed to gather sufficient intelligence that will give it leverage in any future confrontation with the Israeli regime which has now been given new dynamics to fear.
