Sharjah 24 – AFP: Israel's military said Friday soldiers had shot down a drone that entered its airspace from Lebanon a day after a barrage of rockets was fired into Israel.

Friday's incident came hours after Israel bombarded Lebanon following the rocket fire that the army blamed on Palestinian militants.

An army statement said "soldiers identified and downed a drone crossing from Lebanese territory into Israeli territory towards the town of Zarit".

It added that the military would "continue to prevent any attempt to violate Israeli sovereignty".

The Israeli military's pre-dawn strike into southern Lebanon was in response to rockets fired from Lebanon on Thursday.

The violence came amid an upsurge in tensions during Jewish, Muslim and Christian religious holidays.

It follows the storming early Wednesday by Israeli riot police of the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem, Islam's third holiest site.