The drone shot down earlier this week over Israel shows that Iran is the ‘true patron of terror in the Middle East and the world.’
By Yakir Benzion, United With Israel
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that the drone aircraft that was shot down earlier this week over Israel was sent by Iran.
As the Iran-backed Hamas and Islamic Jihad terror groups rained down thousands of rockets on Israel and terrorists in Lebanon chipped in shooting rockets at Israel’s northern border, Israeli air defenses on Tuesday detected the Iranian drone as it entered Israeli airspace from Jordan, just south of the Sea of Galilee.
Residents of the town of Beit She’an were told to stay indoors for nearly an hour, before the all-clear was given after the drone had been downed by Israeli air defenses.
The drone remnants were recovered for analysis, revealing that the UAV was Iranian.
Netanyahu slammed the Islamic Republic, noting that it sponsors and arms Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah.
“The true backer of much of this aggression is Iran,” Netanyahu said at a press conference with visiting German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas.
“Iran not only supports completely the Islamic Jihad in Gaza, and gives them all the finance, they also give weapons to Hamas as well as to Hezbollah and they provide the scaffolding on which these organizations really work,” Netanyahu said.
“While we were engaged in these hostilities a few days ago, Iran sent an armed drone from Iraq or from Syria. Iranian forces launched an armed drone, which our forces intercepted on the border between Israel and Jordan and that I think says everything on the true patron of terror in the Middle East and in the world: Iran.”
And it’s not the first time Iran has sent armed UAVs into Israel.
In 2018 the Israel Air Force shot down an Iranian drone that was flown from Syria into northern Israel. A year later in August, 2019 Israel jets carried out a preemptive strike against Iranian terror targets in southern Syria that prevented a “pending, large-scale attack of multiple killer drones.”
Netanyahu told Maas how Israel is fighting on multiple fronts, and that Iran is behind all of them.
“Not only does Iran totally support Islamic Jihad in Gaza and give it all its funding, it also gives weapons to Hamas and Hezbollah,” he stated. “They provide the infrastructure on which terrorist organizations depend.”