Drone mission into Israel was a bust, asserts Defense Ministry official

The Saturday incursion of an unmanned aerial vehicle into Israeli airspace was a failed mission for whoever launched it, Defense Ministry official Amos Gilad said on Tuesday.

Speaking to Israel Radio, Gilad, a top aide to Defense Minister Ehud Barak, said that the identity of the nation or organization that had sent the drone was still unknown. However, he said, the drone had failed to gather any intelligence or damage Israel’s air defense superiority.

The UAV was identified from a distance, and the IAF waited until it was flying over open space before it neutralized it, he added.

The UAV was shot down over the Yatir Forest in the northern Negev after it entered Israel from the skies over Gaza. Officials believe it was launched from Lebanon and flew south over the Mediterranean before turning inland over Gaza.

On Sunday, a former commander of Israel’s drone unit said that the foreign UAV, widely considered to have been sent by Hezbollah and manufactured by Iran, couldn’t have filmed anything that wasn’t already available on Google Earth, despite claims to the contrary by Iran.