Netanyahu claims drone downed by Israeli security forces this week was launched by Iran

Israel has claimed that the drone downed by the Israel Defense Forces earlier this week was launched by Iran and was armed with explosives.

The Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) have remained silent on the incident. Earlier this week, The UAV was brought down as it approached Israeli airspace near the city of Beit She'an, in the predawn hours of Tuesday morning.

The drone strike came at a time when tensions have escalated in the region due to violence between Israeli forces and Hamas.

Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday said that the drone was made by Iran and launched by Iranian forces toward Israel from either Syria or Iraq, Times of Israel reported.

"Iran sent an armed drone to Israel from Iraq or Syria. Iranian forces launched the armed drone, which our forces intercepted on the border between Israel and Jordan," Netanyahu said, speaking at a press conference alongside German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas.

It is the second time Iran has sent armed UAVs into Israel.

In a similar case in 2018, a drone was flown from Syria into northern Israel before it was shot down by an Israeli helicopter. In response, the IDF launched a wave of strikes on Iranian assets in Syria.

Netanyahu accused Iran of providing support and technical assistance to terror groups throughout the Middle East, including the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which receives most of its funding from Tehran, as well as Hamas, which also gets weapons and other help from the Islamic Republic.

"They provide the scaffolding on which these organizations really work," Netanyahu said.

Earlier this month, the escalation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict started when the unrest began in East Jerusalem over an Israeli court's decision to evict several Palestinian families from the area.

At least 212 Palestinians have died since the beginning of the fighting, 61 of them children.

( With inputs from ANI )

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