BEIRUT: The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah launched one of its heaviest attacks on Israel in mid-May, using an explosive drone that scored a direct hit on one of the Israeli Air Force's most important surveillance systems.
This and other successful drone strikes give the Iran-backed militant group another lethal option in an expected retaliation against Israel for its airstrike in Beirut last month that killed Hezbollah's top military commander, Fouad Shukur.
“It is a threat that must be taken seriously,” said Fabian Hinz, a research fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, of Hezbollah’s drone capacity.
While Israel has built air defense systems such as Iron Dome and David's Sling to protect against Hezbollah's rocket and missile arsenal, less attention has been paid to the threat posed by drones.
“As a result, there has been less effort to build defense capabilities against drones,” Hinz said.
Drones, or UAVs, are unmanned aerial vehicles that can be controlled remotely. Drones can enter, monitor and attack enemy territory more discreetly than missiles and rockets.
Hezbollah announced the success of its May drone attack that targeted an Israeli missile defense airship at a base about 35 kilometers from the Lebanese border.
The militants released footage they said showed their explosive Ababil drone flying toward the Sky Dew airship and later released photographs of the downed aircraft.
The Israeli military confirmed that Hezbollah had scored a direct hit.
“This attack reflects an improvement in accuracy and the ability to evade Israeli air defenses,” said a report by the Institute for National Security Studies, an independent think tank at Tel Aviv University.
Since almost daily exchanges of fire along the Lebanese-Israeli border began in early October, Hezbollah has increasingly used drones to evade Israeli air defense systems and attack its military posts along the border and deep inside Israel.
Although Israel has intercepted hundreds of drones from Lebanon during the Israel-Hamas war, its air defense systems are not hermetic, an Israeli security official said. Drones are smaller and slower than missiles and therefore harder to stop. This is especially true when they are launched near the border and require a shorter reaction time to intercept.
The official, who was not authorized to speak publicly due to Israeli security restrictions, said Israel's air defense systems have had to contend with more drones in this war than ever before, and Israel has responded by attacking the launch points.
On Tuesday, six people were injured in a Hezbollah drone attack on an Israeli military base near the northern Israeli city of Nahariya. One of the group's bloodiest drone attacks took place in April, killing one Israeli soldier and wounding 13 others and four civilians in the northern Israeli community of Arab Al-Aramsheh.
In addition, Hezbollah launched surveillance drones that filmed key facilities in northern Israel, including Haifa, its suburbs and the Ramat David air base southeast of the coastal city.
While Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah boasted that the militant group could now produce its own drones, the terrorist militias have so far relied mainly on Iranian Ababil and Shahed drones for their attacks. On at least one occasion, a drone firing Russian S5 guided missiles was also used.
Hezbollah has been able to develop its capabilities despite Israel killing some of its key drone experts.
The group's most famous representative 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, considered one of the masterminds of the drone campaign, was shot dead south of Beirut. The group blamed Israel for the attack. Recent attacks in Syria attributed to Israel have killed drone experts from Iran and Hezbollah, including an official from the aerospace department of Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard.
In its early days, Hezbollah used simpler tactics, including paragliders, to attack behind enemy lines.
After Israel withdrew from southern Lebanon in 2000 after 18 years of occupation, Hezbollah began using Iranian-made drones and sent the first reconnaissance drone, called Mirsad, over Israeli airspace in 2004.
After the 34-day war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006, Lakkis, Hezbollah's drone mastermind, took over the leadership of the drone program.
During its involvement in the Syrian conflict, Hezbollah increased its use of drones for reconnaissance and attacks. In 2022, when Lebanon was 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 they were shot down by Israel.
Hezbollah's drone program still receives significant support from Iran, and it is believed that the UAVs are assembled by the militant group's experts in Lebanon.
“Since Iran has failed to gain air supremacy, it has resorted to such types of aircraft,” retired Lebanese general and military expert Naji Malaaeb said of drones. He added that Russia had 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 troops in the use of the Shahed-136 and Ababil-3 drones at an air base in central Syria. Russia, Iran and Hezbollah have a military presence in Syria and are fighting alongside the forces of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
In a speech in 2022, Nasrallah boasted: “We in Lebanon started producing drones a long time ago.”
The Lebanese militant group apparently still relies on parts from Western countries, which could pose an obstacle to mass production.
In mid-July, three people were arrested in Spain and one in Germany. They were accused of belonging to a network that supplied Hezbollah with parts to build explosive drones for attacks in northern Israel.
According to investigators, the Spanish companies concerned – like others in Europe and around the world – purchased, among other things, electronic control components, propulsion propellers, gasoline engines, more than 200 electric motors, as well as materials for the fuselage, wings and other drone parts.
Authorities believe that Hezbollah may have built several hundred drones using these components. However, Hezbollah's main supplier remains Iran.
“Israel's air force can fire missiles at different parts of Lebanon, and now Hezbollah has drones and missiles that can reach any area in Israel,” said Iranian political analyst and political science professor Emad Abshenass, adding that while the US is arming its closest ally Israel, Iran is doing the same by arming groups like Hezbollah.
