BICOM

A small drone from the Gaza Strip penetrated Israeli airspace yesterday afternoon, in a further indication of Hamas’s rearmament during the year following Operation Protective Edge.

The aircraft was in the air for approximately 40 minutes and was under surveillance throughout by Israeli forces, who eventually decided to scramble fighter jets towards it. However, the unmanned aircraft eventually crashed to the ground near the border fence without causing any injuries. Israeli military engineers arrived on the scene to examine the vehicle.

Yesterday’s incident was only the second occasion on which a drone had been launched at Israel from Gaza. During last summer’s Operation Protective Edge, an unmanned aerial vehicle was intercepted near the city of Ashdod by a Patriot anti-missile battery. Hamas’s military wing took responsibility for yesterday’s drone operation, saying that, “We launched several unmanned aerial vehicles to perform special tasks deep within Israel.”

The drone operation yesterday comes just two days after a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip landed near the Israeli community of Yad Mordechai. Although it did not cause injuries or damage, it was the fifth such attack in recent weeks, including a Grad rocket which landed near Ashdod. These recent attacks have been claimed by the radical Salafist group the Omar Brigade, which is sympathetic towards ISIS and also hostile towards Hamas.

However, Hamas is thought to have determinedly restocked its arsenal of rockets since last summer’s conflict and there have been widespread reports that it has test-fired new models into the Mediterranean Sea. In addition, Hamas is also reported to be rebuilding its sophisticated network of tunnels, which were a major feature of Operation Protective Edge. Not only did the tunnels enable Hamas leaders and operatives to evade capture, but they were a launching pad for deadly attacks on Israelis. Earlier this year, the Telegraph reported that Iran had transferred millions of pounds to enable Hamas to rebuild its underground network and replenish its rocket supplies.