Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption The drone was destroyed over a largely uninhabited area in the north of the Negev desert 
 
 The leader of Lebanese Shia militant movement Hezbollah has said that his group was behind the launch of a drone shot down over Israel last week. 
 
 Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah told the movement's al-Manar television network that the drone was made in Iran and had flown over "sensitive sites" in Israel. 
 
 Israeli fighter planes shot down the drone north of the Negev desert after it entered from the Mediterranean. 
 
 Israel's prime minister has again vowed to defend the country's borders. 
 
 Sheikh Nasrallah said the drone was assembled in Lebanon but made in Iran - a rare reference to his organisation's military support from Tehran, the BBC's Jon Leyne in Cairo says. 
 
 'Aerial capacity' 
 
 Sheikh Nasrallah said: "A sophisticated reconnaissance aircraft was sent from Lebanese territory... and travelled hundreds of kilometres over the sea before crossing enemy lines and into occupied Palestine." 
 
 Correspondents say Sheikh Nasrallah's mention of "sensitive" Israeli sites is an apparent reference to Israel's Dimona nuclear reactor. 
 
 "Possession of such an aerial capacity is a first in the history of any resistance movement in Lebanon and the region," he said. 
 
 Referring to a drone sent by Hezbollah during its 2006 war against Israel he added: "It's not the first time and it will not be the last. We can reach all the zones [of Israel]." 
 
 Image caption Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah made his announcement on Hezbollah's al-Manar TV 
 
 Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, speaking during a visit to the frontier with Egypt, said Israel was "acting with determination to protect our borders". 
 
 "As we prevented last weekend an attempt by Hezbollah, we shall continue to act aggressively against all threats," he said. 
 
 It was his first public statement blaming Hezbollah for the incident. 
 
 The drone, which did not carry any explosives, was destroyed over a largely uninhabited area. It flew some 35 miles (55km) inland before being shot down. 
 
 On at least three occasions unmanned aircraft operated by Hezbollah have been detected over Israeli territory. 
 
 Although Israeli officials have not given details of where they think the drone came from, Israel's media have published maps indicating it was launched near the southern Lebanese port city of Sidon. 
 
 It is claimed that the aircraft flew out to sea, then south, and then appeared over southern Israel from the direction of the Mediterranean. 
 
 The Israeli military said the aircraft had been detected by ground-based defence systems. 
 
 Israeli jets flew alongside it before shooting it down. 
 
 The drone incident came amid growing hints by Israel that it may launch a military strike against Iran - Hezbollah's close ally - if Tehran continues with its controversial nuclear programme. 
 
 In another development on Thursday, Mr Netanyahu's office announced the date of the general election as 22 January. 
 
 The vote was brought forward by nine months after the prime minister failed to agree an annual budget with his coalition partners. 
 
 His right-wing coalition government has been in power since 2009. ||||| A still image taken from Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) video footage shows what they say is a small unidentified aircraft shot down in a mid-air interception after it crossed into southern Israel October 6, 2012. 
 
 DUBAI (Reuters) - The incursion by an unmanned aircraft into Israeli airspace at the weekend exposed the weakness of Israeli air defenses, an Iranian military official was quoted as saying on Monday. 
 
 The Israeli air force shot down a drone on Saturday after it crossed into southern Israel, the military said, but it remained unclear where the aircraft had come from. 
 
 Jamaluddin Aberoumand, deputy coordinator for Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, said the incident indicated that Israel's Iron Dome anti-missile defense system "does not work and lacks the necessary capacity", Fars news agency reported. 
 
 The Iron Dome system, jointly funded with the United States, is designed to shoot down short-range guerrilla rockets, not slow-flying aircraft. It intercepted more than 80 percent of the targets it engaged in March when nearly 300 rockets and mortars were fired at southern Israel, the Pentagon said at the time. 
 
 The drone was first spotted above the Mediterranean near the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip to the west of Israel, said military spokeswoman Avital Leibovich. An Israeli warplane shot it down above a forest near the occupied West Bank. 
 
 Israeli parliament member Miri Regev, a former chief spokesman of the military, wrote on Twitter it was an "Iranian drone launched by Hezbollah", referring to the Lebanese Shi'ite group that fought a war with Israel in 2006. 
 
 Israeli defense officials have not confirmed this. 
 
 Aberoumand attributed claims the drone was made by Iran to a "psychological operation" by Israel, but did not confirm or deny them. "The Zionist regime (Israel) has many enemies," he added. 
 
 On at least one occasion, Iranian-backed Hezbollah has sent a drone into Israeli airspace. And in 2010, an Israeli warplane shot down an apparently unmanned balloon in the Negev near the country's Dimona nuclear reactor. 
 
 The Israeli military released a 10-second video clip of what it said was Saturday's mid-air interception, showing a small aircraft just before a missile from a fighter jet destroys it. 
 
 Israel has threatened to bomb Iran's nuclear sites if diplomatic efforts fail to stop the nuclear work it believes is aimed at getting weapons capability, a charge Tehran denies. 
 
 Iran has responded with threats to attack U.S. military bases in the region and retaliate against Israel if attacked. 
 
 (Reporting By Yeganeh Torbati; Editing by Alistair Lyon)
– Hezbollah confirmed today what many Mideast observers already guessed: It sent up the spy drone over Israel that was shot down last weekend, and it got help in doing so from Iran, reports the BBC. The unmanned craft may have been destroyed by Israeli jets, but Hezbollah's leader boasted that it "penetrated the enemy's iron procedures" and flew over "sensitive sites" for miles before getting shot down. "This is not the first time and will not be the last," added Sheik Hassan Nasrallah. "We can reach any place we want." Nasrallah said the drone's parts came from Iran but were assembled by Hezbollah in Lebanon, and the connection had Tehran crowing about Israel's weak air defenses, reports Reuters. Earlier, Benjamin Netanyahu promised a strong defense. "As we prevented last weekend an attempt by Hezbollah, we shall continue to act aggressively against all threats," he said.