Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah denied on Tuesday reports that his organization launched the drone the IAF shot down over Haifa bay last week, the Lebanese Daily Star reported.
Nasrallah said there was a strong possibility Israel shot down one of its own drones to frame Hezbollah.
"Everybody knows that an organization will assume responsibility for every action it does, especially if it harms Israel," the Hezbollah leader said in a televised speech from Tehran.
Hezbollah said on Thursday it had not sent the drone into Israeli airspace “Hezbollah denies that it has sent any surveillance plane towards the occupied Palestinian land,” a statement by the Iranian-backed Shi’ite group said.
Asked whether Hezbollah was behind the incident, an IDF spokesman said an investigation was under way.
The Israel Air Force shot down the drone off the coast of Haifa on Thursday. IDF air defenses picked up the drone shortly after 1 p.m., and F-16 fighter aircraft and combat helicopters scrambled to intercept it. The hostile craft flew southward along the Lebanese coastline when it came under the observation of the IAF.
The incursion marked the second such violation of Israeli airspace in six months. The IAF shot down a drone that Hezbollah had sent from Lebanon over the Negev in October 2012. The drone was not carrying explosives and likely had been sent on an intelligence- gathering mission, as well as to test Israel’s air defenses.