Hamas says fighters shot at Israeli drone over Gaza

Likely doing reconnaissance, the UAV was reportedly not hit and returned into Israeli airspace

By Dov Lieber and ToI Staff 11 January 2018, 2:42 pm

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A picture taken from the Israeli side of the border with the Gaza Strip shows a Palestinian man and children on top of a Hamas outpost along the border, on February 25, 2016. (Jack Guez/AFP)

Gazan fighters shot at a small Israeli drone taking photographs of the southern Gaza Strip, a Hamas-affiliated news site said Thursday.

Al-Shehab said members of the “resistance” tried to take down the Phantom drone, was flying west of the Kisufim military base in the Negev.

It was not hit by the bullets, and flew back into Israeli territory, the report said.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.

Tension remains high on the Israel-Gaza border due to the spike in rocket attacks against Israeli towns in November and December. That spike brought the total number of rocket attacks from the Strip in 2017 to 35, far higher than the 15 rocket attacks in 2016 and 21 in 2015.

Both the Hamas terror group that runs the Strip and the Iran-backed Islamic Jihad have large rocket arsenals in the territory.

In retaliation to the rocket and mortar attacks, the Israel Defense Forces struck 59 targets in the Gaza Strip in 2017, according to the military’s figures.