Israel and its neighbors across the Middle East are considering forming a defense alliance against suicide drones, Channel 12 News reported on Saturday.
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Iran's attempts to equip its proxies with such abilities – as evident by the growing number of Houthi drone attacks on Saudi Arabia and the clear attempts the Islamic republic is making to arm Hezbollah, its Lebanon-based proxy with drones – has sparked growing concern in Israel and among its neighbors that Iran would try to expand the range of such attacks from the Persian Gulf to the Middle East.
Late last year Defense Minister Benny Gantz warned that Iran's drone program was a threat not only to Israel but also to the entire region, as such UAVs – launched from Iran itself or neighboring Iraq – can target Israeli assets at sea or within Israel proper.
Israeli Intelligence exposed the locations of two Iranian drone bases in November, in the area of Chabahar and on Qeshm Island, saying they were used to attack Israeli-owned or Israeli-linked vessels sailing through the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman.
"Unmanned aerial vehicles are a precision weapon, which can reach strategic targets throughout the world," the defense minister said at the time.
According to Channel 12 News, Israeli defense officials have been involved in the efforts to form a regional defense alliance that would see each member's detection and interception abilities used to warn the others against potential drone attacks or, if need be, assist in neutralizing such threats in real-time.
"Recently, there have been attempts to launch such drones from Yemen and Iraq, alongside Iran's attempts to deploy drones into Syria and Lebanon," the report said.
On Friday, a drone breached Israeli airspace over the northern border with Lebanon. Air defenses engage the UAV, but it was able to cross back, the IDF said.
The military late said that its investigation concluded that the aircraft was small and unarmed.
On Saturday afternoon, Hezbollah said it had sent the drone on what it called an "intelligence-gathering mission."
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