Lebanese army 'shoots down' Israeli drone

Israel confirmed a drone had been downed but did not say if it had been shot down

Israel says it has lost a drone inside Lebanon but the Lebanese military says it shot down the unmanned craft. AFP

The Lebanese army says it has shot down an Israeli drone inside Lebanese territory on Thursday while Israel confirmed it had lost an unmanned craft.

Without confirming the Lebanese military’s claim, Israel's military said that one of its drones fell inside Lebanon during "operational activity".

"There is no risk of breach of information," an Israeli army spokesman said, offering no further details.

The Lebanese army said in a statement that the drone "penetrated Lebanese airspace over the town of Aita Al Shaab and was shot down by members of one of the army posts."

A similar incident occurred about two weeks ago.

Israel violates Lebanese sovereignty on a near-daily basis with overflights and drone reconnaissance as well as naval breaches.

Unifil, the UN peacekeeping force, logs the flights and the Lebanese government also submits regular complaints to the UN but little has been done to curtail the breaches.

After an incident last year in which Israel was blamed after drones exploded over Beirut’s southern suburbs, Hezbollah said it would respond to such breaches. The army also said it would begin to take a more robust stance towards such activity and try to shoot down Israeli drones. However, the Lebanese military – which relied on US, French and British donations for much of its equipment – lacks any hardware that could pose a significant threat to Israeli air forces.