Iran Press/ Middle East: The Israeli military on Friday said it fired interceptor missiles and protectively scrambled warplanes after what it described as a drone launched from Lebanon crossed its northern border.
Hours later, investigations concluded the drone managed to return to Lebanon, the Israeli military said in a statement.
In Lebanon, Hezbollah issued a statement saying it had sent the “Hassan” drone inside Israel.
According to the statement, the drone toured the targeted area for 40 minutes on a “reconnaissance mission that extended along seventy kilometers” inside the occupied territories.
“Despite the enemy’s multiple and successive attempts to shoot it down, the ‘Hassan’ plane returned from the occupied territories safely after it successfully carried out the required mission,” it said.
Minutes after the Hezbollah announcement, an Israeli warplane flying at very low altitude buzzed the Lebanese capital Beirut, jolting residents, rattling windows, and setting off some car alarms.
Earlier this week, Lebanon's Hezbollah secretary-general Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said his group has been manufacturing military drones in Lebanon and has the technology to turn thousands of missiles in its possession into precision-guided munitions.
Nasrallah warned: “When the enemy dares to carry out an offensive to search for our missiles, we might be facing a second ‘Ansariya Operation’.”
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