Israeli military attempting to locate and recover downed drone, Southern Hebron Hills, October 6. Photo by Eliyahu Hershkovitz
The Israeli Air Force shot down an unidentified aerial vehicle that penetrated Israel’s airspace on Saturday. IDF forces shot down the drone over the Negev, south of Mount Hebron. The IDF said Saturday that the drone arrived in Israel from the west after flying over the Mediterranean and the Gaza Strip. It said the incident is under investigation.
This is the fourth time in the past decade such an incident occurs. In the past, small drones penetrated Israel’s airspace from the north. …
The IDF said Saturday that it plans on examining the drone’s flight course in attempt to establish its origin. It will also investigate what the drone’s objective was: reconnaissance and intelligence gathering (that also may be used for propaganda) or to target Israeli towns or IDF compounds.
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Iranian media in past years reported that the country is developing a new combat drone named Karar, saying it will have bombing capabilities. According to reports, Iran claims that the Karar’s range could reach 1,000 kilometers.
The IDF mentioned in past incidents that the damage done to Israel by the drones was not the exposing of classified material, but the fact that videos recorded during the flight were published in the media, undermining the Air Force’s superiority in the region.
Israel radio reported that it appeared to be an intelligence gathering drone. The report says the military knew the drone was nearing Israel and decided to wait to shoot it down over Israeli airspace.
Defence Minister Ehud Barak has congratulated the military in a statement.
He says “we view this incident of attempting to enter Israeli airspace very severely and we will consider our response later.”
The drone was brought down a mere 30 kilometers from the Dimona.
Just go to a Maker Faire and you will see hobbyists’ small scale planes that can be used as drones. Just because the US uses them on its intended Muslim victims in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yemen, etc., doesn’t mean others can’t also make drones, including Gaza’s Palestinians. The US chose to open the Pandora’s box of drone warfare, without realizing that that technology was available to all. “What hath God wrought.”
$10 says it was one of these:
http://www.brookstone.com/parrot-ar-drone-2-quadricopter
Haaretz contributes to the unintentional humor files:
“Analysis
The immediate suspect behind the drone that penetrated Israel: Hezbollah
The unmanned aerial vehicle that was shot down by the IDF on Saturday came from the direction of Gaza – but it does not appear that Palestinian groups are behind it…”
Never mind that it came from the opposite direction: it was Hezbollah!
Impressively, the article offers absolutely no evidence beyond the fact that Hezbollah has operated drones in the past to support the contention.
The quoted piece appears to attempt to support a similar contention: “… IDF forces shot down the drone over the Negev, south of Mount Hebron…”
Ah yeah. The Negev is indeed ‘south of Mount Hebron.’ Quite a ways south.
Israel appears to be attempting to believe its own bullshit. Either (a) Hezbollah — a Shi’a organization — has mysteriously acquired an ability to mount relatively large operations from territory dominated by Sunni fundamentalists, (b) Hezbollah now has drones with a range of several hundred miles that can circle around Israel and come in from the opposite direction, or (c) it wasn’t Hezbollah at all.
Even if Israel does want to have a war with Hezbollah.
More importantly — just in case there’s anyone out there who’s in a position to implement the suggestion — these drones are ideal.
I don’t know whether the tactic is intentional or not, but assuming the things are actually harmless, the tactic could be brilliant. On the one hand, they can hardly become a ‘terrorist outrage’ if they never kill anyone. On the other hand, at a minimum, they will force Israel to expend wildly disproportionate resources to shoot them down, and are likely to excite her to make grossly unjustified threats and even start attacking all and sundry.
…Thus further delegitimizing herself. These drones are an example of exactly how the war against Israel should be fought. It’s like Judo — the idea is to use Israel’s own weight against her.
…and the beauty of it is, what’s Israel going to do? Start letting unidentified drones zip all over her airspace? Expend a $10,000.00 interceptor rocket on each one? However she plays it, it can only lead to mounting hysteria and demands for ‘retaliation’ within Israel.
Assuming anyone wants to win, this is an outstanding way to go.
“The IDF mentioned in past incidents that the damage done to Israel by the drones was not the exposing of classified material, but the fact that videos recorded during the flight were published in the media, undermining the Air Force’s superiority in the region.”
They’d better do something about Google Earth, then. Right here at my fingertips…