Israel shot down a Syrian drone that penetrated its airspace on Wednesday, Reuters with reference to the Israeli military reported.
Air-defense sirens on the Golan Heights and close to the nearby Jordanian border were set off when a Patriot missile fired to intercept the drone, a military spokesman said. It was the second such incident in the area in as many months.
The drone, which had also overflown Jordan and appeared to have been unarmed and designed for surveillance, was downed near the Sea of Galilee at the Golan foothills in northern Israel, spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Jonathan Conricus told reporters.
“We are still looking into why it crossed - whether it was on a military mission and crossed on purpose, or it strayed,” he said, while adding that the latter scenario was “not common”.
Israel has been on high alert as Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces advance on rebels in the vicinity of the Golan. Israel worries that he could deploy troops or allow his Iranian and Hezbollah allies to set up emplacements near Israeli lines.