By CNN Staff
JERUSALEM (CNN) — The Israeli air force shot down an unmanned drone Saturday over the northern Negev desert, the nation’s military said.
The Israeli Defense Forces spotted the drone, which did not carry any weapons or explosives, hovering over the Gaza Strip before it entered Israeli airspace, military spokeswoman Avital Leibovi said.
Forces kept the drone under surveillance until a fighter jet shot it down around 10 a.m. Saturday over the Yatir Forest, the IDF said.
Soldiers were searching the area for remnants of the drone, the IDF said.
Leibovi declined to discuss the drone’s route or whether it had flown over military installations.
“We view this incident of attempting to enter Israeli airspace very severely and we will consider our response later,” Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said in a statement released Saturday afternoon.
It was not clear where the drone originated. Military officials, however, said it does not appear that it took off from the Gaza Strip, which along with Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula and Mediterranean Sea forms the western border of the Negev.
