BEIRUT: Lebanon's Hezbollah militant group launched one of its deepest strikes in Israel in mid-May, using an explosive drone that directly hit one of the Israeli air force's most important surveillance systems.
That attack and other successful drone attacks gave the Iran-backed militant group another deadly option for an expected retaliation against Israel for its airstrike last month in Beirut that killed Hezbollah military commander Fouad Shukur.
“It's a threat that needs to be taken seriously,” Fabian Hinz, a researcher at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, said of Hezbollah's drone capability.
While Israel has built air defense systems including Iron Dome and David's Sling to protect against Hezbollah's rockets and missile arsenal, it has focused less on the drone threat.
“And as a result, less effort has been made to build defensive capabilities” against drones, Hinz said.
Drones, or UAVS, are unmanned aircraft that can be operated remotely. Drones can enter, surveil and attack enemy territory more discreetly than missiles and rockets.
Hezbollah claimed success in May's drone strike, which targeted an airship used as part of Israel's missile defense system at a base about 35 kilometers (22 miles) from the border with Lebanon.
The militants released footage showing what they said was their explosive Ababil drone flying towards the Sky Dew blimp, and later released photos of the downed plane.
The Israeli military confirmed that Hezbollah scored a direct hit.
“This attack reflects an improvement in the accuracy and ability to evade Israeli air defenses,” said a report published by the Institute for National Security Studies, an independent think tank affiliated with Tel Aviv University.
Since the near-daily exchange of fire 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, as well as deep in Israel.
While Israel intercepted hundreds of drones in Lebanon during the Israel-Hamas war, its air defense systems are not airtight, an Israeli security official said. Drones are smaller and slower than missiles and rockets, therefore harder to stop. This is especially true when they are launched from close to the border and require a shorter reaction time to intercept.
The official, who was not authorized to speak publicly under Israeli security restrictions, said Israeli air defense systems had to deal with more drones during this war than ever before, and Israel responded by attacking the launch.
On Tuesday, a Hezbollah drone attack on an Israeli army base near the northern city of Nahariya injured six people. One of the group's deadliest drone attacks occurred in April, killing one Israeli soldier and wounding 13 others plus four civilians in the Arab community of Al-Aramsheh in northern Israel.
Hezbollah also sent surveillance drones that filmed vital installations in northern Israel, including Haifa, its suburbs and the Ramat David air base, 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. He also used, at least once, a drone that fires Russian-made S5 guided missiles.
Hezbollah's increased capabilities came despite Israel killing some of its top drone experts.
The best known was Shukur, which 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 its drone masterminds, was shot dead south of Beirut. The group blamed Israel. More recent strikes in Syria attributed to Israel have killed Iranian and Hezbollah drone experts, including an official in the aerospace division of Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard.
In its early days, Hezbollah used low-tech tactics, including paragliding, 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 sent the first Mirsad reconnaissance drone over Israeli airspace in 2004.
After the Israel-Hezbollah 34-Day War in 2006, Hezbollah drone mastermind Lakkis took over leadership of the drone program.
Hezbollah has increased its use of drones in reconnaissance and strikes during its involvement in the Syrian conflict. In 2022, as Lebanon engaged in indirect negotiations to demarcate its maritime border with Israel, the group sent three drones over one of Israel's largest gas installations in the Mediterranean before they were shot down by Israel.
Hezbollah's drone program continues to receive substantial assistance from Iran, and the UAVs are believed to be assembled by the militant group's experts in Lebanon.
“Since Iran has not been able to achieve air supremacy, it has resorted to these types of aircraft,” said retired Lebanese general and military expert Naji Malaaeb, referring to the drones. He added that Russia benefited from buying hundreds of Iranian Shahed drones to use in its war against Ukraine.
In February, Ukrainian intelligence said Iranian and Hezbollah experts were training Russian troops to operate Shahed-136 and Ababil-3 drones at an airbase in central Syria. Russia, Iran and Hezbollah have a military presence in Syria, where they have fought alongside Syrian President Bashar Assad's forces.
In a 2022 speech, Nasrallah boasted that “we in Lebanon and for a long time have started producing drones.”
The Lebanese militant group 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, suspected of belonging to a network that supplied Hezbollah with parts to build explosive drones for use in attacks in northern Israel.
The Spanish companies involved, as well as others in Europe and around the world, purchased items including electronic guidance components, propellers, gasoline engines, more than 200 electric motors and materials for fuselages, wings and other drone parts, according to the investigators.
Authorities believe Hezbollah may have built several hundred drones with these components. However, Iran remains Hezbollah's main supplier.
“The Israeli 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. He added that while the US is arming its closest ally, Israel, Iran is doing the same by arming groups like Hezbollah.
