TEL AVIV — The Israeli military said it shot down a drone on Thursday, five nautical miles off the coast of its northern port of Haifa, after tracking it for an hour as it flew south along the Lebanese coast.

“Once we confirmed that it was not a friendly aircraft and it had entered Israeli airspace, F-16 aircraft intercepted it with air-to-air missiles,” said Capt. Eytan Buchman, a spokesman for the Israeli military.

Captain Buchman added that questions like whether the drone was armed were being investigated.

Israeli analysts speculated that the drone was more likely to have been on a surveillance mission, possibly to photograph sites like Israel’s off-shore gas fields or its chemical stores in Haifa. They also noted that the small drone might not have had any operational purpose at all beyond testing Israel’s response or trying to embarrass the government.

Military officals said that the drone originated from a coastal area of Lebanon.

Israeli suspicions immediately fell on Hezbollah, the militant Shiite organization in Lebanon, which fought with Israel during a monthlong war in 2006, and which Israel regards as a terrorist organization.