On Wednesday, Israel scrambled jets after an Iranian drone entered from Lebanon.
“Moments ago, IDF troops spotted a drone from Lebanese territory that entered the airspace of the State of Israel and then returned to Lebanese territory. The drone was tracked by [IDF] forces,” the Israeli army said in a statement.
According to military officials, the aircraft quickly returned to Lebanese territory.
The incident came hours after Israel reportedly targeted sites in Syria controlled by the Lebanese Hezbollah terrorist group. According to Syrian and Lebanese reports, the target of the predawn strike by Israel was infrastructure set up by Hezbollah in the area of Tel al-Harra in recent months, following Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad’s conquering of the area last summer.
Wednesday’s excitement comes less than a day after the IDF’s commanding general of Northern Command warned that Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group was building up a “terrorist infrastructure” along the border with Israel and vowed not to allow the group to realize its “destructive ambitions.” Iranian manufactured drones have been a central concern of Israel’s security apparatus for at least the past year and a half. Last year, one of the most important Israeli strikes on Iranian infrastructure in Syria was triggered at least in part by the launching of a drone into Israel. The drone that flew into Israeli airspace back in early February 2018 and subsequently shot down emanated from a targeted Iranian base. Iran’s drones play an important part in their military strategy. They are used by Hezbollah and other parts of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps stationed in Syria to conduct surveillance of Israel’s north, run penetration tests, and measure IDF response protocols.
