A senior Israeli navy officer said the Martyr Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), attempted to use a drone to target an offshore gas field near the city of Ashkelon. , during the Battle of Seth, Jerusalem, May 2021

According to the Palestinian news agency Safa, Channel 12 quoted an officer as saying that Qassam launched a booby-trap drone towards the Tamar gas field near Ashkelon, but a naval ship intercepted the plane and shot it down. The Tamar gas field is strategically located and is the main source of power plants in Israel.

The officer indicated that the aforementioned field is guarded by modern Saar 5 warships equipped with the Iron Dome naval system, and they are constantly patrolling to prevent any air attacks on the field. He pointed out that the ship was equipped with advanced radar that diagnosed the approach of the drone to the field and sent a signal to the Dome system, which fired its missiles at it and intercepted it.

“The Navy considers this operation its biggest achievement in recent years,” he said. And the Israeli army had previously uncovered an attempt by the Al-Qassam Brigades to target the aforementioned field with small submarines during the Battle of the Sword for Jerusalem, but this is the first time it has discovered a drone attempt. On May 12, 2021, Al-Qassam announced that it had fired rockets at an Israeli gas platform off the coast of Gaza in response to the occupation’s renewed bombing of civilian towers.