The leader of the Shia militant movement Hezbollah in Lebanon said his group is responsible for launching a UAS into Israel last week, and Iranians made it.Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah said on the movement’s television channel that the aircraft flew over “sensitive sites” in Israel.
“This aircraft is not Russian made, it was Iranian made,” he said. The UAS “was assembled by the specialized Hezbollah team. The Lebanese should be proud of that.”
The Israeli air force shot down the unmanned device Saturday over the northern Negev desert, the Israeli Defense Forces said.
The aircraft, which was hovering over Gaza and had entered Israeli airspace, wasn’t carrying weapons or explosives, military spokeswoman Avital Leibovich said.
Nasrallah boasted that it wasn’t the first time Hezbollah has sent unmanned aircraft over Israel. He said the group can do it “whenever we want” inside “occupied Palestine.”
“This mission was not the first one,” he said, “and will not be the last one, God willing.”
Asked about Nasrallah’s speech and his bold statement, a senior Israeli official who did not have permission to speak publicly on the subject said: “His statement is not worth commenting on.”
Hezbollah has been flying UAS over Israel for years, said Micah Zenko of the Council on Foreign Relations, who specializes in UAS technology proliferation and the Middle East.
“That it happened again is absolutely insignificant,” he said.
He described Nasrallah’s comments as blustering and largely empty.
“Israel usually tracks them as they come across the border and often doesn’t bother to shoot them down,” Zenko said. “They just want to see what Hezbollah thinks it can do.”
Source: CNN