The claims by the militia came hours after the IDF announced it downed a drone last week over the sea near Lebanon as it approached Israeli airspace.
“An IDF fighter jet, in cooperation with Israeli Navy, intercepted last week (December 15) an unmanned aircraft over the sea in Lebanese territory, which was on its way to Israeli territory. The vessel did not cross into Israeli territory,” the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit said in a statement on Friday.
While the Iranian militias claim they successfully hit the Karish rig, they have provided no proof of this.
IDF Spokesperson Daniel Hagari said at a press briefing on Friday evening, “Today we also publicized the successful interception of a UAV last week, which was en route to Israeli territory. It was above the sea near Lebanon on its way to Israeli territory and was intercepted by a fighter jet in cooperation with naval forces, all part of our operation to intercept UAVs.”
“Not everything is revealed immediately, (this is) sometimes due to security reasons and to enable gathering of information. We're not exactly sure where this vehicle was designated to go, but what's important is that we destroyed it as we will continue to do so against any threat to Israel,” he added.
Since the start of the war against Hamas in Gaza, the pro-Iranian militias have launched dozens of attacks on bases in Iraq and Syria which host US troops.
The US has retaliated by striking Iranian-linked sites in both Iraq and Syria.
The militias’ claims they targeted the Karish rig came hours after they claimed they attacked targets in Eilat overnight Thursday.
No sirens were heard in Eilat on Thursday night, but Arab media reported that the Jordanian army shot down a drone that was on its way from Iraq to Israel.