Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett in Jerusalem on Monday. Israeli military officials said they used F-35 jet fighters to shoot down two drones launched from Iran in March last year. (AFP)

Israel says Iran tried to fly arms to Hamas using drones

Israel accused Iran of trying to use long-range drones to fly small arms to Palestinian militants in the West Bank and Gaza Strip in an evolution in Tehran’s use of unmanned vehicles against its Middle East rival.

Israeli military officials said they used F-35 jet fighters to shoot down two drones launched from Iran in March last year, marking the first time the advanced planes have been used to bring down unmanned vehicles. On Monday, nearly a year after the incident, the Israeli military released video from the F-35s showing the shoot down of the drones and details of the subsequent investigation.

While Israel has accused Iran of using neighbouring Syria, Iraq and Lebanon as launchpads for ­attacks on Israel, this is the first time the military charged Tehran with dispatching drones directly from Iran bound for Israel.

One Israeli military official said Iran appeared to be carrying out trial flights to see if it could successfully use drones to carry weapons and ammunition to Palestinian militants. “We see this as a kind of test,” the official said.

Israeli officials said they waited nearly a year to publicise the information on the incidents because of regional sensitivities with its friendly neighbours.

The details come as the US and its allies are close to reaching an agreement to revive the 2015 ­nuclear deal with Iran that would free up billions of dollars in Iranian money currently frozen by international sanctions.

Read the article by Dion Nissenbaum in The Australian (from The Wall Street Journal).