Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah announced on Thursday that his organization was responsible for sending an unmanned aerial drone that was shot down over Israel last weekend.

Nasrallah said that the drone's parts were manufactured in Iran and that it was assembled by Hezbollah operatives in Lebanon. He vowed that Hezbollah would launch more drones in the future and that the Shiite group would "surprise the Zionist enemy with our capabilities."

Speaking on Hezbollah's Al-Manar television station, Nasrallah claimed that the drone flew undetected for hundreds of kilometers and surveilled strategic sites inside Israel, including the Dimona nuclear facility.

Nasrallah did not detail what information was gathered by the drone or whether it sent back transmissions to Hezbollah.

The Hezbollah leader denied claims by Israeli officials that the drone was identified by the Israeli Defense Forces while it was still outside of Israeli airspace above the Mediterranean Sea.

Earlier this week, the IDF deployed a Patriot surface-to-air missile battery in the Carmel region, near Haifa in the country's north.

IDF officials said that the deployment was not unusual and that similar deployments have been carried out in various parts of Israel from time to time. There is usually a specific reason, however, for the deployment of a Patriot battery in the Haifa region.

The Patriot system is capable of intercepting hostile aircraft, missiles and unmanned drones.