BEIRUT: Lebanese militant group Hezbollah launched one of its deepest attacks on Israel in mid-May with an explosive drone that directly hit one of Israel's most important air force surveillance systems.
This and other successful drone strikes have given the Iran-backed militant group another deadly option for an expected retaliation against Israel for its airstrike in Beirut last month that killed Hezbollah's top military commander, Fouad Shukur.
“It's a threat that needs to be taken seriously,” Fabian Hinz, a research fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, said of Hezbollah's drone capabilities.
While Israel has built air defense systems, including Iron Dome and David's Sling to protect against Hezbollah's rocket and missile arsenal, there has been less focus on the drone threat.
“And as a result, there's been less effort to build defensive capabilities” against drones, Hinz said.
Drones, or UAVS, are unmanned aircraft that can be controlled remotely. Drones can enter, track and attack enemy territory more discreetly than missiles and rockets.
Hezbollah announced the success of its drone strike in May, which targeted a balloon used as part of Israel's missile defense system at a base about 35 kilometers (22 miles) from the Lebanese border.
The militants released footage they said showed their explosive Ababil drone flying towards the Sky Dew balloon and later released photos of the downed aircraft.
The Israeli military confirmed that Hezbollah had scored a direct hit.
“This attack reflects improvements in the accuracy and ability to evade Israeli air defenses,” said a report released by the Institute for National Security Studies, an independent think tank affiliated with Tel Aviv University.
Since near-daily firefights along the Lebanon-Israel border began in early October, Hezbollah has increasingly used drones to bypass Israeli air defense systems and strike its military posts along the border and deep inside Israel.
While Israel intercepted hundreds of drones from Lebanon during the war between Israel and Hamas, its air defense systems are not airtight, an Israeli security official said. Drones are smaller and slower than missiles and rockets, making them harder to stop. This is especially true when they are launched from near the borders and require a shorter reaction time to catch.
The official, who was not authorized to speak publicly in accordance with Israeli security restrictions, said that Israel's air defense systems had to contend with more drones than ever before during this war, and Israel responded by attacking launch points.
On Tuesday, six people were injured in an attack by a Hezbollah drone on an Israeli army base near the city of Nahariya in the north of the country. One of the group's deadliest drone attacks was in April, killing one Israeli soldier and wounding 13 others plus four civilians in the northern Israeli community of Arab Al-Aramsheh.
Hezbollah also sent surveillance drones to film vital facilities in northern Israel, including Haifa, its suburbs and the Ramat David airbase, southeast of the coastal city.
While Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has boasted that the militant group can now manufacture its own drones, its attacks so far have relied mainly on Iranian-made Ababil and Shahed drones. At least once, she also used a drone that launches Russian-made S5 cruise missiles.
Hezbollah's increasing capabilities came despite Israel killing some of its most prominent drone experts.
The best known was Shukur, who Israel said was responsible for most of Hezbollah's most advanced weapons, including rockets, long-range missiles and drones.
In 2013, a senior Hezbollah operative, Hassan Lakkis, believed to be one of its drone builders, was shot dead south of Beirut. The group blamed Israel. Recent strikes in Syria attributed to Israel have killed Iranian and Hezbollah drone experts, including an official in the air division of Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guards.
In its early days, Hezbollah used lower-tech tactics, including paragliders, to attack behind enemy lines.
After Israel withdrew from southern Lebanon in 2000 after an 18-year occupation, Hezbollah began using Iranian-made drones and in 2004 sent the first Mirsad reconnaissance drone over Israeli airspace.
After the 34-day war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006, Lakkis, Hezbollah's drone mastermind, took over the drone program.
Hezbollah has increased its use of drones for reconnaissance and strikes during its involvement in the Syrian conflict. In 2022, when Lebanon began indirect negotiations to demarcate its maritime border with Israel, the group sent three drones over one of Israel's largest gas facilities in the Mediterranean before Israel shot them down.
Hezbollah's drone program still receives significant help from Iran, and the drones are believed to be assembled by experts from the militant group in Lebanon.
“Since Iran has not been able to achieve aerial supremacy, it has resorted to these types of aircraft,” former Lebanese general and military expert Naji Malaaeb said, referring to drones. He added that Russia benefited from the purchase of hundreds of Iranian Shahed drones to use in the war against Ukraine.
In February, Ukrainian intelligence reported that Iranian and Hezbollah experts were training Russian soldiers to operate the Shahed-136 and Ababil-3 drones at an air base in central Syria. Russia, Iran and Hezbollah have a military presence in Syria, fighting alongside the forces of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
In a 2022 speech, Nasrallah boasted that “we in Lebanon, and for a long time, started making drones”.
The Lebanese militant group still appears to rely on parts from Western countries, which could present an obstacle to mass production.
In mid-July, three people were arrested in Spain and one in Germany on suspicion of belonging to a network that supplied Hezbollah with parts to make explosive drones for use in attacks in northern Israel.
The Spanish companies, like others in Europe and around the world, bought items including electronic guidance components, propellers, gasoline engines, more than 200 electric motors and materials for the fuselage, wings and other parts of the drone, according to investigators.
Authorities believe Hezbollah may have built several hundred drones with these components. Still, Iran remains Hezbollah's main supplier.
“The Israeli Air Force can fire missiles at different parts of Lebanon, and Hezbollah now has drones and missiles that can hit any area in Israel,” said Iranian political scientist and political science professor Emad Abshenass. He added that while the US is arming its closest ally, Israel, Iran is doing the same by arming groups like Hezbollah.
