Israeli Spy Drone Crashed in Lebanon

Reuters reports that an Israeli drone has crashed in Tripoli.  It was a Hermes 450.  Though they say it crashed in the sea, this video footage clearly shows it on land. Hezbollah in the past has had success in commandeering Israeli drones via hacking. Israel has also admitted destroying drones with which it lost contact (or which were hacked) in order to prevent their falling into Hezbollah hands. It appears that the Lebanese have earned a rich harvest with the capture of this vehicle.  Though it’s unclear that it will benefit Hezbollah or Iran, since Tripoli is not one of their strongholds.

An interesting question is why the Israelis were spying there.  It’s a northern Sunni city outside the Shia geographical sphere of influence.  It is possible the drone’s mission lay elsewhere (Syria or the Bekaa), that it was hacked or stopped responding there and flew itself to Tripoli, where it crashed.