Updated

The Israeli military says one of its unmanned surveillance aircraft has crashed in the Gaza Strip after experiencing a technical malfunction.

The military says it's investigating what caused the Skylark drone to go down on Tuesday.

Israel uses drones to gather intelligence on militant activity in Gaza. The territory is governed by the Palestinian militant group Hamas, and several other armed groups also operate there.

Hamas militants say they have recovered the aircraft and handed it over to security forces. No further details were immediately available.

The Israeli army would not say whether the drone's fall into Hamas' hands could provide secrets or technology to the militants.

The Skylark, however, is known to have safeguards to prevent disclosure of information to unauthorized personnel.