An Israeli military naval ship and an Israeli air force helicopter operate next to a cruise ship off the coast of Haifa, northern Israel, Thursday, April 25, 2013. Israel shot down a drone Thursday as it approached the country’s northern coast, the military said. Suspicion immediately fell on the Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon. The incident was likely to raise already heightened tensions between Israel and Hezbollah, a bitter enemy that battled Israel to a stalemate during a monthlong war in 2006. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)
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JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel shot down a drone Thursday as it approached its northern coast from neighboring Lebanon, raising suspicions that the Hezbollah militant group was behind the infiltration attempt.
Hezbollah denied involvement, but the incident was likely to heighten Israeli concerns that the Shiite militant group is trying to take advantage of the unrest in neighboring Syria to strengthen its capabilities.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was in a helicopter in northern Israel at the time of the incident, said he viewed it with “utmost gravity.”
Israeli military spokesman Lt. Col. Peter Lerner said the unmanned aircraft was detected as it was flying over Lebanon and tracked as it approached Israeli airspace.
He said the military waited for the aircraft to enter Israeli airspace, confirmed it was “enemy,” and then an F-16 warplane shot it down, smashing its wreckage into the sea about five miles (eight kilometers) off the northern port of Haifa. Lerner said Israeli naval forces were searching for the remains of the aircraft.
He said it still was not clear who sent the drone, noting it flew over Lebanese airspace, but that it could have originated from somewhere else.
Other military officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not permitted to talk to the media, said they believed it was an Iranian-manufactured aircraft sent by Hezbollah. The Lebanese group sent a drone into Israeli airspace last October that Israel also shot down.
Officials said Netanyahu was informed of the unfolding incident as he was flying north for a cultural event with members of the country’s Druse minority. They said his helicopter briefly landed while the drone was intercepted then continued on its way.
“On my way here in the helicopter, I was told that there is an infiltration attempt of a drone inside the skies of Israel,” Netanyahu said in the northern Arab-Israeli town of Daliyat al-Karmel. “We will continue to do everything necessary to safeguard the security of Israel’s citizens.”
Despite the denial, the incident was likely to raise already heightened tensions between Israel and Hezbollah, a bitter enemy that battled Israel to a stalemate during a monthlong war in 2006.
A senior Lebanese security official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations, said Lebanon had no information on Thursday’s incident.
When Israeli military shot down a Hezbollah drone on Oct. 6, it took days for Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah to confirm it. He warned in a speech that it wouldn’t be the last operation by the group. He said the sophisticated aircraft was made in Iran and assembled by Hezbollah.
Netanyahu repeatedly has warned that Hezbollah might try to take advantage of the instability in neighboring Syria, a key Hezbollah ally, to obtain what he calls game-changing weapons.
Israel has all but confirmed that it carried out an airstrike in Syria earlier this year that destroyed a shipment of sophisticated anti-aircraft missiles bound for Hezbollah.
Israel’s military has also stepped up its air surveillance over Lebanon. On Thursday morning, Israeli warplanes flew over the Christian town of Jezzine and the highlands of the Iqlim al-Tuffah province, a Hezbollah stronghold in southern Lebanon, the country’s state-run National News Agency reported.
The Lebanese army also reported Israeli jets violated Lebanese airspace on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Some analysts said Hezbollah might be trying to divert attention from its involvement in the increasingly sectarian Syrian civil war. The Shiite militants have openly sided with the regime of Bashar Assad in its battle against mostly Sunni rebels.
Jonathan Spyer, senior research fellow at the Herzliya Interdisciplinary Center near Tel Aviv, said Hezbollah was facing discontent among its Shiite base in Lebanon, and more broadly among other Arabs for its participation in the Syrian conflict.
He said the group was likely trying to show that its real enemy was the Jewish state, in an effort to shore up support.
Spyer said sending a drone appeared to be a “fairly calibrated provocation,” intended to be low key enough not to provoke an Israeli military response in Lebanon.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if we see more of these kinds of incidents in the weeks and months ahead,” he said.
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Associated Press writers Zeina Karam in Beirut and Josef Federman in Jerusalem contributed to this report.
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Former cruise liner, the Duke of Lancaster, was docked on the banks of the Dee Estuary in north Wales three decades ago. It has now become a canvas for graffiti artists from across Europe.
The first paintings to appear were of orange and blue pirates on the ship’s bow, created by Latvian artist 
GOIN. Many of the artworks have an anti-authority theme, inspired by the ship owners’ struggles with the local council to keep it open. ” border=”0″ height=”360″ id=”articleGalleryPhoto003″ style=”margin:0 auto;display:none” width=”640″/>The 10-meter tall “Council of Monkeys” was created by French artist 
Irish artist 
At 18-meters tall and 14-meters wide, “Eduk the Diver”, created by The Cream Soda Crew from Britain, is the largest piece on the ship. The four-person crew used a hydraulic-powered elevated work platform to scale the towering walls. 
The project was launched by arts collective 
“One of the things that’s impressed me is just how taken the artists are with the ship. This is their interpretation of its history,” project co-ordinator, Paul Williams, said. 
This balaclava-clad businessman was created by British artist 
Before she was an open-air gallery, the Duke of Lancaster was a luxury passenger ferry. During the summer months she traveled the high seas as a cruise liner around western Europe, the Mediterranean and Scandinavia. 
The Duke boasted a silver service restaurant and spacious cabins. “She was an opulent ship — her fixtures and fittings were second to none,” Williams said. 
The vessel was converted into a car ferry in 1970. Eight years later she was destined for the scrap yard when four entrepreneurs — John Rowley, Pat Scott, Trevor Scott and Ian Tobin — bought her in the hope of creating a leisure center which, as a ship, would by-pass the UK’s Sunday trading laws. 
In 1980, the Funship opened, featuring a mall, cinema, game arcade, restaurant, nightclub and hotel rooms. The leisure center closed in 1985, after safety concerns from the local council.
Inside, the ship remains virtually untouched. “It’s strange, but since the artworks started appearing on the outside of the ship last August, we’ve had no acts of vandalism inside,” Williams said. 
DuDug is now campaigning to have the site reopened to the public as the centerpiece of an arts festival. Will this be the next chapter in the varied history of the Duke? 
A desk inside the burnt U.S. Consulate building in Benghazi, Libya, on September 13, two days after the attack.
The damage inside the burnt U.S. Consulate in Benghazi on September 13.
A lounge chair and umbrella float in the swimming pool of the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi on September 13.
Demonstrators on September 12 gather in Libya to condemn the killers and voice support for the victims in the attack on the U.S. Consulate. 
U.S. President Barack Obama makes a statement about the death of Ambassador Chris Stevens with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the Rose Garden at the White House on September 12 in Washington. 
A burnt vehicle is seen at the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, on September 12. 
People inspect the damage at the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, on September 12.
A small American flag is seen in the rubble at the U.S. Consulate on September 12.
President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton stand at Andrews Air Force Base as the bodies of the four Americans killed at the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi are returned on September 14.
A man stands in part of the burned-out compound on September 12. 
Smoke and fire damage is evident in this consulate building on September 12.
Half-burnt debris and ash cover the floor of one of the consulate buildings on September 12.
The U.S. Consulate in Benghazi is seen in flames on September 11.
A protester reacts as the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi burns on September 11. 
A vehicle and the surrounding area are engulfed in flames after it was set on fire inside the compound on September 11.
Flames erupt outside of a building in the U.S. consulate compound on September 11.
A vehicle burns during the attack Tuesday on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi on September 11.
Onlookers record the damage from the attack on September 11.
Onlookers walk past a burning truck and building in the compound on September 11.
A vehicle sits smoldering in flames on September 11.
People duck flames outside a consulate building on September 11. 
