A small IDF surveillance drone was lost in southern Lebanon near the Israeli border on Saturday. It’s the fourth drone lost by the Israeli military this year, according to local reports.

The drone was identified by Lebanese media as a Skylark, a tactical surveillance UAV used by Israeli artillery troops. According to reports in Lebanon, it landed near the Lebanese village of Ayta ash-Shab and was destroyed by another Israeli drone.

عاجل سقوط طائرة تجسس إسرائيلية من دون طيار في منطقة خلة مريم بين بلدتي برعشيت وبيت ياحون دون معرفة اسباب سقوطها وطائرة تجسس ثانية تستهدفها بصاروخ موجه وتدمرها pic.twitter.com/fIzgydhFWd — علي شعيب 🇱🇧 (@ali_shoeib1) March 31, 2018

The IDF confirmed the loss of the aircraft, but said that it had fallen from the sky rather than being destroyed on the ground. The military said they were investigating the incident and that it had been caused by a technical malfunction.

According to the Times of Israel, the IDF had lost three Skylark drones before the most recent incident on Saturday. One crashed in southern Lebanon in January, prompting the Israelis to launch a cross-border raid to recover it. Two other drones were lost in March – one in southern Syria and another one in the northern part of the Gaza Strip. The Israeli military say the incidents were not the result of a common problem with the drone model.

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