Israeli Soldiers Recover Surveillance Drone's Fuselage Near Mays al-Jabal

An Israeli army unit recovered at dawn Wednesday an MK surveillance drone that had crashed near the U.N.-drawn Blue Line close to the southern Lebanese town of Mays al-Jabal.

The National News Agency reported that the unit pulled the main body part of the drone hours after it erected a tent near it to guard it all night.

The soldiers crossed on Tuesday the technical border fence in the Kroum al-Mrah region to recover parts of the spy drone that crashed in mysterious circumstances.

Witnesses told NNA that the 11 soldiers removed three parts and then erected the tent at sunset to guard the fuselage all night.

The soldiers were finally able to transport the drone back to Israeli territories at dawn Wednesday.

On Tuesday, the Lebanese army and United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon deployed patrols in the area to monitor the situation.

The army also issued a communique saying its units “took the appropriate defensive measures to prevent enemy forces from infiltrating Lebanese territory after an enemy patrol tried to remove parts of an Israeli unmanned drone that had crashed near the Blue Line facing the border town of Mays al-Jabal, on the side of the occupied Palestinian territories.”

The communique confirmed that an Israeli soldier had fired a gunshot in the air during the operation.