Lebanese army says Israeli surveillance plane crashes into Tripoli

An Israeli drone crashed Saturday morning in the port of Tripoli in northern Lebanon, the Lebanese army announced, the second such incident in the country in three weeks.

While Israel’s policy is to refrain from responding to foreign reports, senior officials have said repeatedly that Israel would not allow the Syrian regime to transfer “game-changing” weapons to Hezbollah in Lebanon.

The Lebanese military further stated that the Israeli military launched a strike to destroy the drone, which it said was conducting surveillance of their country.

“At around 8:30 AM, a drone belonging to the Israeli enemy went down in the port of Tripoli, and the army has taken the necessary measures”, the Lebanese military said in a statement.

In response to the allegedly felled aircraft, an IDF spokesperson quipped that the Israeli Army does not “comment on foreign reports”.

Last February, Lebanese media reported that a Lebanese drone entered Israel, near Rosh Hanikra on the Mediterranean coast, and flew over the Galilee for 20 minutes before returning to Lebanon.

On June 21, an Israeli fighter jet struck a mountainous area near the town of Saghbine in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley, located about 70 kilometers (44 miles) east of the capital, to destroy the wreckage of an Israeli spy drone that had earlier crashed in the area.