Downing Israeli Drone Proof of Resistance Capability: Islamic Jihad
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – A Palestinian Islamic Jihad leader in Gaza said Wednesday that downing of an Israeli surveillance drone on Sunday was a sign of the capabilities of resistance.
“The Palestinian resistance groups downed a drone of the Zionist regime flying in the skies of Gaza, and although Tel Aviv at first tried to hide the issue, later it was forced to admit to it,” Khalid al-Batsh told the Tasnim News Agency.
The Palestinian Jihad leader in Gaza further emphasized that Israel has faced defeat both in proving its military supremacy and in imposing its espionage hegemony over the Palestinians.
“That regime has not been able to destroy the underground tunnels of the Palestinians and failed to properly assess the military and logistics capabilities of the Palestinian resistance groups,” Khalid al-Batsh said.
The Palestinian official said that considering the fact that the cameras mounted on the mini-drone cover a 70-kilometer radius, its downing and the Palestinians’ access to its technology has been a severe blow to the intelligence apparatus of the Zionist regime.
On Sunday, the Israeli military said one of its surveillance aircraft crashed in the Gaza Strip after experiencing a technical malfunction. It said the Skylark drone crashed just over 500 yards inside Gaza territory.
Israel is among the world's biggest manufacturers of drones. They are unmanned aerial vehicles which Israel uses to gather intelligence and, sometimes, to carry out attacks.
But Hamas said fighters from its military wing, the Izz al-Din Qassam Brigades, had downed and seized the Isareli surveillance drone east of Jabaliya in the northern Gaza Strip.
Last May, a drone of the same model crashed near Gaza, because of a technical error. Troops recovered the drone after a 12-hour search.
