TEL AVIV (EJP) --- Incoming and outgoing flights were suspended at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion international airport Wednesday, after an identified aircraft was spotted flying over Israel.
Air traffic was briefly disrupted early morning whilst the Israeli Air Force (IAF) service dispatched fighter jets to the area for a routine check, before determining the suspect sighting was not a threat to the country’s security.
Israel has been subject to an increased state of alert since a foreign drone illegally penetrated Israeli airspace Saturday. The lone vehicle, which was unmanned, reportedly flew over the Mediterranean and the Gaza Strip for approximately half an hour at which point it entered into populated territory and was successfully shot down by the IAF on its second attempt.
Although a official statement by the Israel Defence Force (IDF) spokesman’s office said that due to an ongoing professional investigation, “it is not possible to go into details regarding the complex professional procedure of shooting down aircraft on the pages of a newspaper”, separate reports have circulated claiming the unmanned aerial vehicle may have been sent by Lebanese shitte group Hezbollah, in the latest of a series of alleged attacks on Israeli targets.
IDF officials refuted suggestions that the deployment of a Patriot surface-to-air missile battery in Haifa on Monday was in any way connected to Saturday’s incident.