Abdel-Raouf Arnaout
18 May 2021•Update: 18 May 2021
JERUSALEM
The Israeli army said Tuesday it had shot down a drone near the Jordan Valley in the occupied West Bank.
Military spokesman Avichay Adraee said the drone was intercepted as it approached the Israeli border near the Wadi el-Ayoun area in the Jordan Valley.
"Israeli forces have collected the debris of the drone," he said, without giving further details.
This was the seventh time that the Israeli army intercepted a drone since the current round of fighting broke out with Palestinian factions in the Gaza Strip on May 10, according to Israeli sources.
At least 212 Palestinians have been killed, including 61 children and 36 women, and 1,400 others injured in Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip since last week, according to the Health Ministry.
Ten Israelis have also been killed by Palestinian rocket fire from the Gaza Strip.
The recent tensions that started in East Jerusalem during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan spread to Gaza as a result of Israeli assaults on worshippers in the flashpoint Al-Aqsa Mosque compound and Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood.
Israel occupied East Jerusalem, where Al-Aqsa is located, during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. It annexed the entire city in 1980 in a move never recognized by the international community.
*Writing by Ibrahim Mukhtar in Ankara
