25 April 2013 Last updated at 15:04 GMT
Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the incident as an "extremely grave" attempt to breach Israel's borders
Israel says one of its fighter jets
has shot down an unmanned aircraft sent from Lebanon into Israeli airspace.
A missile brought down the drone about five miles (8km) west of the northern
Israeli port of Haifa around 14:00 (11:00 GMT), officials said.
Reports suggest the drone could have been sent by Lebanese militant group
Hezbollah, which fought a month-long war against Israel in 2006.
It is the second time in seven months Israel has downed a drone from
Lebanon.
Last October, the Israeli air force shot down an unmanned aircraft over the
south of the country.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the incident as an
"extremely grave" attempt to breach Israel's borders.
"We will continue to do whatever it takes to protect the security of Israel's
citizens," he said.
Mr Netanyahu was on his way to the north of Israel in a helicopter when the
incident happened. His aircraft landed briefly until the Lebanese plane was shot
down.
He recently warned that Hezbollah might try to take advantage of the
instability in neighbouring Syria.
'Serious
threat'
Israel says the latest aircraft was detected and monitored while still over
Lebanon, and it was shot down by an air-to-air missile fired from an Israeli
F-16 fighter jet, at an altitude of about 6,000ft (1,800 m).
"UAVs [unmanned aerial vehicles] pose a serious threat to the state of
Israel's security," said
an
IDF report on the incident. "The IDF will not tolerate any attempt to
violate Israel's sovereignty or harm its security."
Israel's Channel 2 television station reported that the aircraft took off
from near Sidon in southern Lebanon and was quickly detected by Israeli air
defence units, with warplanes and fighter helicopters dispatched to confirm it
was not a civilian aircraft.
The commander of Israel's air force was following the incident from the
control room and - once it had been established the drone was a hostile aircraft
- ordered it to be shot down, the station reported.
Israeli ships are attempting to recover the remains of the drone from the
sea, to try and determine if it was meant to explode over an Israeli target or
simply take pictures.
