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. Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah acknowledged on... 
 
 BEIRUT Lebanese Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah acknowledged on Thursday sending a drone aircraft that was shot down last weekend after flying some 25 miles into Israel. 
 
 Nasrallah said in a televised speech that the drone's parts were manufactured in Iran and it was assembled by members of the Shi'ite Muslim militant movement in Lebanon. He confirmed a statement by Israel's prime minister earlier in the day saying that Hezbollah was behind the drone flight. 
 
 "The resistance in Lebanon sent a sophisticated reconnaissance aircraft from Lebanon...It penetrated the enemy's iron procedures and entered occupied southern Palestine," Nasrallah said. Hezbollah does not recognize the state of Israel. 
 
 Tensions have increased in the region with Israel threatening to bomb the nuclear sites of Hezbollah's patron Iran if diplomacy and sanctions fail to stop Iranian nuclear activity the West suspects is meant to develop a weapons capability. Tehran says it is seeking only civilian nuclear energy. 
 
 Iran has threatened in turn to attack U.S. military bases in the Middle East and retaliate against Israel if attacked. 
 
 Seeking to underline that Hezbollah was capable of reaching targets well inside Israel, Nasrallah said the drone "flew over sensitive installations inside southern Palestine and was shot down in an area near the Dimona nuclear reactor". 
 
 Iran said the incursion exposed the weakness of Israeli air defense, indicating that Israel's Iron Dome anti-missile defense system "does not work and lacks the necessary capacity". The Iron Dome system, jointly funded with Washington, is designed to down short-range guerrilla rockets, not slow-flying aircraft. 
 
 Hezbollah last fought Israel in 2006 during a 34-day war in which 1,200 people in Lebanon, mostly civilians, and 160 Israelis, mostly soldiers, were killed. 
 
 Since that war, Hezbollah has a number of times suggested it had expanded its arsenal in an apparent strategy of deterrence. 
 
 Hezbollah is also an ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who is fighting to put down a 19-month-old uprising that has turned into a civil war with sectarian dimensions, largely pitting the majority Sunni Muslims against Assad's minority Alawite community, who are an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam. 
 
 Nasrallah has explicitly expressed political support for Assad, whose opponents have accused Hezbollah of sending fighters to help the Syrian leader quell the insurgency. 
 
 Nasrallah denied such accusations. "We have not fought alongside the regime until now. The regime did not ask us to do so and also who says that doing so is in Lebanon's interest?" 
 
 Earlier this month Hezbollah buried two of its fighters who local sources said were killed near a Syrian border town. Hezbollah acknowledged the death of only one fighter and said he was a commander who "died while performing his jihad duties". It did not elaborate. Nasrallah said on Thursday that he was killed in a roadside bomb in a town near the Syrian border. 
 
 Last month, the U.S. Treasury imposed sanctions on Nasrallah for what it said was support given to Assad against anti-government protests, as well as two other members for the group's "terrorist activities" in general. 
 
 (Editing by Mark Heinrich)
– 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.