Hezbollah drones unsettle Israel as new tactical race begins

3^min

Report by Wissam Nasrallah, English adaptation by Karine Keuchkerian

In the three weeks following the April 17 ceasefire between Lebanon and Israel, the Israeli army acknowledged that 39 soldiers were wounded in southern Lebanon.

More than 94% of those injuries were caused by Hezbollah drones, according to Israeli Army Radio.

Drones worth only a few hundred dollars have alarmed Israel’s security, military, and political leadership, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu himself acknowledging the threat.

Footage showing fiber-optic FPV drones pursuing Israeli soldiers, armored vehicles, and military positions in southern Lebanon and northern Israel without an effective countermeasure prompted the Israeli army to quickly seek alternatives to confront them.

A correspondent for Israeli Army Radio reported that the Israeli military decided to establish a factory to produce thousands of FPV drones each month.

Just as Hezbollah uses these drones for attacks, they can also be used defensively, meaning one drone can intercept and explode another drone. The Israeli army is developing this capability and has already tested it on the battlefield, though it is not yet available on a sufficient scale.

Israel has also introduced another tactic inspired by the Russia-Ukraine war to counter Hezbollah drones: rotating barbed wire connected to iron stakes and powered by an electric motor that continuously spins the wire at a slow speed.

Under this method, when a drone flies overhead while trailing a fiber-optic cable, the rotating wire catches the cable, wraps around it, and cuts it. Once the drone’s fiber-optic connection is severed, it loses communication and crashes.

However, this technique can cover only a very limited geographic area. As a result, a senior Israeli officer said the most effective tactic against such drones is combining all available measures, including installing protective nets over armored vehicles and military positions, deploying various radar systems in the field and integrating their data, using rotating barbed wire, deploying interceptor drones against Hezbollah drones, and equipping fighters with shotguns and frangible ammunition for individual weapons.