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Israel 'shoots down Lebanon drone' | Israel 'shoots down Lebanon drone' |
(35 minutes later) | |
Israel says one of its fighter jets has shot down an unmanned aircraft sent from Lebanon into Israeli airspace. | |
A missile brought down the drone about five miles (8km) west of the northern Israeli port of Haifa around 14:00 (11:00 GMT), officials said. | A missile brought down the drone about five miles (8km) west of the northern Israeli port of Haifa around 14:00 (11:00 GMT), officials said. |
Reports suggest the drone could have been sent by Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, which fought a month-long war against Israel in 2006. | Reports suggest the drone could have been sent by Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, which fought a month-long war against Israel in 2006. |
It is the second time in seven months Israel has downed a drone from Lebanon. | |
Last October, the Israeli air force shot down an unmanned aircraft over the south of the country. | |
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the incident as an "extremely grave" attempt to breach Israel's borders. | |
"We will continue to do whatever it takes to protect the security of Israel's citizens," he said. | |
Mr Netanyahu was on his way to the north of Israel in a helicopter when the incident happened. His aircraft landed briefly until the Lebanese plane was shot down. | |
He recently warned that Hezbollah might try to take advantage of the instability in neighbouring Syria. | |
Israel says the latest aircraft was detected and monitored while still over Lebanon, and it was shot down by an air-to-air missile fired from an Israeli fighter jet. | |
"UAVs [unmanned aerial vehicles] pose a serious threat to the state of Israel's security," said an IDF report on the incident. "The IDF will not tolerate any attempt to violate Israel's sovereignty or harm its security." |