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On July 11, the Israeli military announced that its Patriot air defense system identified, tracked and shot down an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) of the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) over the occupied Golan Heights.
On twitter the Israel military said that it “will not allow any violation of Israeli airspace and will act against any attempt to hurt its civilians.”
The Israeli media revealed that the UAV flew 9.6km inside Israeli airspace before it was shot down by the Israeli military. According to initial reports, the UAV was not armed and its remains were found by the Israeli authorities in the lake of Tiberias.
In a similar way, an Israeli AH-64 Apache helicopter shot down an Iranian UAV near the northern town of Beit Shean on February 10. Back then, Israel claimed that the UAV was armed and responded with a series of airstrike on positions of the SAA and Iranian forces.
Israel may use this incident as a pretext to attack the SAA, which is currently conducting a military operation against the militants in southern Syria. Such a development will likely escalate the situation to a very dangerous level.
