This article is more than 7 years old

This article is more than 7 years old

Israel has shot down a drone as it approached the country's northern coast, the military said. Suspicion immediately fell on Lebanon's Hezbollah militant group.

The incident on Thursday is likely to raise already heightened tensions between Israel and Hezbollah, a bitter enemy that battled Israel to a stalemate during a month-long war in 2006.

The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who was in northern Israel at the time of the incident, said he viewed the infiltration attempt with "utmost gravity".

"We will continue to do everything necessary in order to protect the security of the citizens of Israel," he said.

Lt Col Peter Lerner, a spokesman for the Israeli Defence Force (IDF), said the unmanned aircraft was detected as it was flying over Lebanon and tracked as it approached Israeli airspace.

Lerner said the military waited for the aircraft to enter Israeli airspace, confirmed it was "enemy", and an F-16 warplane shot it down.

The drone was flying at an altitude of about 6,000 feet (1,800 metres) and was downed roughly five miles (8km) off the Israeli coast near the northern city of Haifa. Lerner said Israeli naval forces were searching for the remains of the aircraft.

He declined to say who sent the drone. But other military officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said they believed it was an Iranian-manufactured aircraft sent by Hezbollah. Hezbollah sent a drone into Israeli airspace last October that Israel also shot down.

Netanyahu was informed of the unfolding incident as he was flying north for a cultural event with members of the country's Druze minority. Officials said his helicopter briefly landed while the drone was intercepted before Netanyahu continued on his way.

Netanyahu has repeatedly warned that Hezbollah might try to take advantage of the instability in neighbouring Syria, a key Hezbollah ally, to obtain what he calls game-changing weapons.

Israel has all but confirmed that it carried out an airstrike in Syria early this year that destroyed a shipment of sophisticated anti-aircraft missiles bound for Hezbollah.

A senior Lebanese security official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, said Lebanon had no information on Thursday's incident.

Ibrahim Moussawi, a Hezbollah spokesman, also said he had no information, adding the group would put out a statement if it had something to say on the issue.

When the Israeli military shot down a Hezbollah drone last October, it took days for Hezbollah's leader, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, to confirm the incident in a speech. He warned at the time that it would not be the last such operation by the group. He said the sophisticated aircraft was made in Iran and assembled by Hezbollah.