Claims and Counter-Claims

Israeli authorities have not divulged publicly where they believe the helicopter drone shot down within Israel's borders emanated from.  It was likely a surveillance drone, headed for the Dimona nuclear plant.  DEBKAfile is more forthright, linking it to Iran and to Hezbollah.  And making a link as well with Hamas, a tripartite league of enemies of the State of Israel, jointly dedicated to its eradication from the Middle East.

6, 2012, 7:56 PM (GMT+02:00)

Exploding mystery UAV over Israel

Israeli intelligence and air force waged a cyber battle Saturday, Oct. 6 with unidentified parties, most likely Hizballah or Iran, which sent a satellite-guided unmanned helicopter into Israeli air space through the Mediterranean.  debkafile reports exclusively: For 30 minutes, control of the helicopter swung back and forth between Israeli cyber operators and unknown agents over southern Israel. Finally, four Israeli F-16 fighters shot the trespasser down, the while Israeli cyber experts tried to identify its satellite controller.

 Funded and armed by Iran, both Hezbollah and Hamas recognized as terrorist groups in the West, do Iran's bidding as extra-territorial allies and terror-militia proxies.  And though Israeli defence officials declined to confirm who sent and operated the drone, a member of Israeli parliament, former military spokesperson Miri Regev, spoke of the intrusion into Israeli airspace as an "Iranian drone launched by Hezbollah", to no one's surprise.

Leading the deputy co-ordinator for Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to disparage that speculation as a "psychological operation" led by Israel, without bothering to either confirm or deny the charge.  Preferring to state the obvious, that "the Zionist regime has many enemies".  Unsurprisingly all of them sharing the same political agenda and shared religion in a geography consecrated to Islam.

But there was also a palpable sense of triumph in the statement by Jamaluddin Aberoumand, the Iranian deputy coordinator, crowing that the drone's success in penetrating Israeli airspace was proof positive that the much vaunted Iron Dome anti-missile defence system "does not work and lacks the necessary capacity", despite that it is designed to shoot down short-range guerrilla rockets, not drones.

In a tit-for-tat spat Iran took the opportunity to accuse Israel of masterminding a series of cyber attacks on the Republic's communication networks on offshore oil and gas platforms.  The head of the Islamic Republic's information technology for the Iranian Offshore Oil Company spoke gloatingly of Iran's experts repelling the cyber attack.  Yet another fabrication, since the attack, whatever its source, met with a good measure of success.

"This attack was planned by the regime occupying Jerusalem and a few other countries", said Mohammad Reza Golshani. 

IDF troops attempting to locate and recover downed drone, Southern Hebron Hills, October 6, 2012. Photo by Eliyahu Hershkovitz