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Hezbollah claims crashed Israeli drone in its possession
Hezbollah said yesterday that it had located an Israeli drone which crashed in southern Lebanon on Monday.
The IDF confirmed on Monday that the drone had malfunctioned and crashed and that they were investigating the causes of the accident. Yesterday, Hezbollah’s Al-Manar television station announced that Hezbollah operatives had located a “tactical Skylark UAV” unmanned reconnaissance aircraft and that it was being held in a “secure place for inspection”.
Al-Manar added that the drone had been found near the southern border town of Alma Shaab and although Lebanon’s army had attempted to locate it on Monday evening, the rough terrain had delayed their progress.
Lebanon’s Al-Jadid television station reported that the IDF had intensified contact with the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), the region’s peacekeeping force, in an attempt to locate the drone.
Israel is thought to regularly send drones into Lebanese territory to monitor Hezbollah movements. Israeli military officials recently estimated around 10,000 Hezbollah positions, including infrastructure and armaments, are located within around 200 Lebanese villages and towns along the Israeli border.
During the month-long Second Lebanon War in 2006, Hezbollah fired around 4,000 rockets at northern Israel, killing 43 Israeli civilians. It is estimated that Hezbollah now has an arsenal of around 100,000 rockets at its disposal with a range covering all of Israel.
Hezbollah is a staunch ally of Syria’s President Assad, fighting alongside his forces in Syria’s ongoing civil war. Hezbollah fighters recently played a prominent role in the Syrian army’s re-capture of Aleppo. Although Israel has remained firmly on the sidelines of the Syrian conflict, Israeli officials have admitted to periodic strikes aimed at preventing the transfer of advanced weaponry from Syria to Hezbollah forces in Lebanon.
Last month, Lebanon’s parliament approved a national unity government, which includes representatives of Hezbollah, under the leadership of Prime Minister Sa’ad Hariri.