BEIRUT: The Lebanese armed group Hezbollah launched one of its deepest strikes against Israel in mid-May, using an explosive-laden drone that directly hit one of Israel's air force's most significant surveillance systems.
That and other successful drone strikes have given the Iran-backed militant group another deadly option for expected retaliation against Israel for its airstrike in Beirut last month that killed Hezbollah's top military commander, Fuad 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 defend against Hezbollah's rocket and missile arsenal, less attention has been paid to the drone threat.
“And as a result, there was less effort to build a defensive capability” against drones, Hintz said.
Drones, or UAVs, are unmanned aerial vehicles that can be controlled from afar. Drones can penetrate, observe and attack enemy territory more discreetly than missiles and rockets.
Hezbollah claimed success in its drone strike in May, which targeted an airship used as part of Israel's anti-missile defense system at a base about 35 kilometers (22 miles) from the Lebanese border.
The militants released video footage of their explosive-laden Ababil drone flying towards the Sky Dew airship, and later released photos of the downed plane.
The Israeli military confirmed that Hezbollah had struck directly.
“This attack reflects an increase 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 Lebanese-Israeli 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 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, so they are harder to stop. This is especially true when they are launched from close range from the boundary and require less reaction time to intercept.
The official, who was not authorized to speak publicly due to Israeli security restrictions, said Israel's air defense systems had to deal with more drones during this war than ever before, and Israel responded by attacking launch sites.
On Tuesday, six people were injured in a Hezbollah drone attack on an Israeli army base near the northern city of Nahariya. One of the group's deadliest drone attacks took place in April, killing one Israeli soldier and wounding 13 others, plus four civilians in the northern Israeli community of Arab Al-Aramshe.
Hezbollah also sent surveillance drones to film vital sites in northern Israel, including Haifa, its suburbs and the Ramat David airbase southeast of the coastal city.
Although Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has boasted that the armed group can now produce its own drones, its attacks have so far largely relied on Iran's Ababil and Shahed drones. He also used a drone, at least once, that fires Russian-made S5 guided missiles.
Hezbollah's capabilities are increasing despite Israel's killing of some of its most important drone specialists.
The most high-profile was Shukur, who Israel says was responsible for most of Hezbollah's most advanced weaponry, including rockets, long-range missiles and drones.
In 2013, a high-ranking Hezbollah operative Hassan Lakis, believed to be one of the organizers of the drones, 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 a member of the aerospace division of Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard.
In its early days, Hizbollah used lower-tech tactics, including paragliders, to strike behind enemy lines.
After Israel withdrew from southern Lebanon in 2000 after an 18-year occupation, Hezbollah began using Iranian drones and sent the first Mirsad reconnaissance drone over Israeli airspace in 2004.
After the 34-day war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006, Lakis, the mastermind of Hezbollah's drones, took charge of 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 was in 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 continues to receive significant assistance from Iran, and the UAVs are believed to be assembled by the militant group's specialists in Lebanon.
“Since Iran has not been able to achieve air superiority, it has turned to these types of aircraft,” said retired Lebanese general and military expert Naji Malaaeb, referring to the drones. He added that Russia benefited from the purchase of hundreds of Iranian Shahed drones for use in the war against Ukraine.
In February, Ukrainian intelligence said that Iranian and Hizbullah experts were training Russian soldiers in the operation of Shahed-136 and Ababil-3 drones at an air base in central Syria. Russia, Iran and Hezbollah have a military presence in Syria, where they fight alongside Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's forces.
In a speech in 2022, Nasrallah boasted that “we in Lebanon, and for a long time, started producing drones.”
The Lebanese militant group still apparently relies on parts from Western countries, which could be 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 build 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 drones, according to the investigation.
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 part of 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.
