The drone Hezbollah recently sent into the Israeli airspace has
photographed secret military bases inside the occupied territories, according to
the UK newspaper Sunday Times.
“The drone, which was airborne for three hours before being
intercepted by an F-16 jet, is believed to have transmitted pictures of
preparations for Israel’s biggest joint military exercise with the US army,
which began last week, as well as ballistic missile sites, main airfields and,
possibly, its nuclear reactor in Dimona.”
The report also stated that the interception of the unmanned aerial
vehicle was “botched” when the first missile fired by the Israeli warplane
missed.
On October 11, Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah
confirmed the flight. Al-Manar TV broadcast footage simulating how the
resistance movement sent the drone deep into the Zionist airspace, evading radar
systems.
The operation, code-named Ayyoub ("Hussein Ayyoub "the ex-commander of
Hezbollah air force who was martyred in 1996), saw Hezbollah’s drone fly
hundreds of kilometers into the Israeli airspace and get very close to Dimona
without being detected by advanced Israeli and US radars, Sayyed Nasrallah
indicated.
Security analysts say the incident indicates that the Israeli
military is incapable of handling a surprise attack despite the numerous
military maneuvers regularly conducted by the regime.
Intelligence experts contend that the interloper should have been
intercepted from the Mediterranean as it entered the skies of the Gaza Strip,
before it was shot down over the Yatir Forest south of the city of
al-Khalil.
The drone, according to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, served as a
reminder of the complicated balance of deterrent power. That Hezbollah, backed
by Iran, "looms as the most sophisticated antagonist vis-a-vis Israel in the
region is not in dispute."
Hezbollah's
drone: 'What it learned & whether it transmitted its observations to
Hezbollah is not known'
River to Sea"JERUSALEM — A drone aircraft that entered Israeli airspace earlier this week was apparently on a mission to take pictures of the Dimona nuclear research center in southern Israel, Israeli officials confirmed Friday.What the aircraft managed to learn and whether it transmitted its observations to a remote facility was not immediately known. Israeli officials have said the aircraft was launched from southern Lebanon and was shot down “some time” after it entered Israeli air space. Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shiite militia, says that its technicians assembled the aircraft from parts provided by Iran.
“This was a crude device, but it was a drone with all the capabilities that unmanned aerial crafts offer, and for that reason it is worrying,” an Israeli military official told McClatchy under the condition that he not be identified because he was not authorized to discuss sensitive information with a reporter. “We are studying the drone now to learn more about what it accomplished and what Hezbollah intended with it.”
Uprooted Palestinian 
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