Drone crashes in Israel-annexed Golan Heights

JERUSALEM (AFP): A drone crashed near a village in the Israel-annexed Golan Heights, Israel’s army said Thursday, after an Iraqi armed group with links to Hamas militants claimed responsibility for an attack in the area.

Israeli media reported that a drone probably carrying explosives launched from Syria was shot down late Wednesday evening south of the settlement of Eliad, causing no injuries but some material damage.

The Israeli army told AFP that the drone had crashed near Eliad, but gave no further details.

The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a loose formation of pro-Iran armed groups, said in a statement it had hit a “vital target” south of Eliad with “appropriate weaponry.”

Israel has repeatedly vowed to keep up its campaign to destroy Hamas in retaliation for its bloody October 7 attack, which left about 1,140 people dead, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.

Israel’s bombardment and ground invasion have killed at least 21,110 people, mostly women and children, according to the latest toll from Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry.

Since the war in Gaza began, the Islamic Resistance in Iraq has claimed responsibility for numerous attacks against US and international coalition forces in Iraq and Syria.

Washington has counted 103 attacks against its forces in Iraq and Syria since 17 October, according to a US military official.

Most of those attacks have been claimed by factions of the Islamic Resistance in Iraq that oppose US support for Israel in its war against Hamas.

But the group has so far claimed few direct attacks against Israeli interests.

Israel conquered part of the Golan Heights from Syria in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war before annexing the territory in 1981.

The annexation is not recognized by the United Nations.