Drones are seen during a large-scale drone combat exercise of Army of the Islamic Republic of Iran, in Semnan, Iran January 4, 2021. Picture taken January 4, 2021. Photo: Iranian Army / WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via REUTERS

i24 News – Iran launched two drones toward Israeli territory in March of 2021, successfully intercepted by the Israeli Air Force, Israel’s military permitted for publication on Sunday.

This was the first operational interception of a UAV by an F-35i aircraft in the world, the statement said.

The interception of the UAVs was carried out prior to it entering Israeli airspace, in coordination with neighboring countries. The UAVs were detected and tracked throughout their flight by ground control units.

According to reports, the drones carried firearms meant for terror groups in Gaza.

Two drones launched from Iran were shot down in Iraq last Tuesday.

“It’s so easy to carry out attacks with drones or bombs. So it’s a very big story that is tackled by all kinds of means,” said a senior diplomat.

Over the past year, Israel has been tracking Iranian drone strike attempts, both by Houthis in Yemen and Shia militias on the Syrian-Iraqi border.

Israel has begun to establish a “regional air defense parachute” in cooperation with a number of countries in the Middle East and the Persian Gulf to detect and intercept drones, with one country helping to defend the other.

Israel also uses numerous intelligence means to try to detect these launch attempts in advance, and has even improved its “Iron Dome” anti-missile system to better deal with them.