BICOM

An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) breached Israeli airspace yesterday afternoon from across the Syrian border and returned to Syrian territory after attempts to down the drone failed.

The UAV reportedly entered four kilometres deep into Israeli territory. The IDF said that “two Patriot air defence missiles were fired towards a drone which infiltrated Israeli airspace from Syria”. However, the Patriot missiles, which have previously been deployed successfully against drones from the Gaza Strip, failed to intercept the UAV. An Israeli fighter jet was then sent to fire an air-to-air missile against the drone, but it too was unable to successfully intercept it.

Air raid sirens were briefly sounded in local communities and shrapnel from the Patriot missiles landed in Kibbutz Ayelet Hashachar, lightly wounding a 14-year-old girl and causing brush fires. It remains unclear who was responsible for sending the drone. Hezbollah, which is extremely active in Syria, claimed that it had launched the drone “as part of an operation against Israel”. However, media reports say that it could also have been sent by Syrian or Russian forces. Writing in Yediot Ahronot, Yoav Limor says that the Israeli military has launched an investigation into the incident, but that “all signs indicate that this was a failure of the air defence array”.

Meanwhile, in a separate incident yesterday on the Golan Heights, two soldiers were killed after a grenade exploded during a routine patrol. The incident occurred yesterday morning, as the patrol jeep was near the Syrian border at the foot of Mount Hermon. The two soldiers killed were named Hussam Tafesh and Shlomo Rindenau, while three additional soldiers were hospitalised. It remains unclear exactly why or how the grenade exploded, but a panel chaired by an officer of the rank of colonel has been formed to investigate the circumstances surrounding the incident. Tafesh will be buried today in the Druze town of Beit Jann.