After the United States fired more than 50 Tomahawk missiles into Syria several weeks ago in response to the country’s use of chemical weapons, tensions in the Middle East remain higher than ever.
On Thursday, the Israel Defense Force announced that it’s missile system had shot down a Syrian drone that invaded Israeli air space.
Initial report: The Patriot Aerial Defense System intercepted a target above the Golan Heights.
— IDF (@IDFSpokesperson) April 27, 2017
Israel’s strike on the Syrian drone came just hours after the military fired missiles at a Hezbollah-run arms depot near Damascus International Airport.
In a statement, the IDF said they “will not allow any breach of Israel’s airspace and will act against any attempt of infiltration.”
From The Times of Israel:
According to the IDF, the Syrian UAV was under “full [Israeli Air Force] surveillance” while it was in Israeli airspace. It was not initially clear if the aircraft was Russian or Syrian, but the army later confirmed that it was Syrian. The army said residents of northern Israel could go about their lives as normal.
A brief video of the Patriot missile launch was recorded:
#BREAKING video: Launch of a Patriot missile from northern Israel against an unidentified aircraft pic.twitter.com/TQYgxgG7PV
— Amichai Stein (@AmichaiStein1) April 27, 2017
Interestingly, “Israel would not officially comment on whether it had carried out the strike [on the Hezbollah arms depot]. However, Syrian officials insisted the Jewish state was behind the attack, which reportedly targeted a stash of weapons that were bound for the Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorist group. Though he didn’t explicitly acknowledge Israel was behind it, Intelligence Minister Yisrael Katz said the attack was consistent with Israel’s policy of preventing arms transfers to Hezbollah.”
It is unknown what sort of drone was shot down by an Israeli missile, but given the increased tensions in the region, it would not be surprising if Syria was using drones to spy on Israel. Given that Israel is threatened from multiple countries in the region, the IDF has every right to shoot down any unauthorized entry into its airspace in order to protect its people.
The question is, who was flying the drone and why?
Do you think Israel made the right call to shoot down a Syrian drone? Was the Syrian government trying to spy on Israel? Share your thoughts below!