WarSclerotic

For the second time this week, Israel fired a Patriot missile at an unmanned aircraft that approached the country’s border from Syria, the IDF said Friday.

“A Patriot missile of the IDF’s aerial defense array was launched toward a Syrian drone flying over the demilitarized zone. The drone was most likely intercepted,” the Israeli military said.

A witness on the Syrian side of the frontier said the aircraft had crashed.

The IDF reiterated it would “operate against attempts to violate the 1974 Separation of Forces Agreement, threats to Israeli sovereignty and any attempt to harm Israeli civilians.”

Israeli leaders have recently repeated that they expect Syrian President Bashar Assad and his Iranian-backed allies to honor the agreement, which sets out a demilitarized zone along the Israeli-Syrian border and limits the number of forces each side can deploy within 25 kilometers (15 miles) of the zone.

Last Wednesday, a drone traveled about 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) inside Israeli territory before it was shot down by an Israeli Patriot missile.

That incident came as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was visiting Moscow for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin about Syria and Iran.

Russia has been a key ally of the Syrian government in its civil war. Israel’s main concern is keeping archenemy Iran as far away from its border as possible – along with its proxy, Lebanon’s Hezbollah terrorist organization.

Last month, Israel fired a missile at a drone that approached its airspace near the Syrian frontier, and in February it shot down what it said was an Iranian drone that entered its airspace.