Hezbollah drone threat persists as Israel reveals pager operation details

Report by Amal Shehadeh, English adaptation by Karine Keuchkerian 

Air raid sirens are sounding across northern settlements and the Galilee as Hezbollah drones infiltrate the region’s airspace, while the Israeli army acknowledges it is unable to counter them: this is Israel’s reality these days.

Faced with this situation, the Israeli army has introduced munitions to confront the drone threat, in a move Israel hopes will protect it from what it considers the most dangerous challenge currently on the battlefield.

According to the army, these munitions are used when a drone is detected at close range. At that point, soldiers’ primary task is to take cover and move away from the drone’s flight path before firing the ammunition, which has a wide dispersal range reaching up to 100 meters.

However, all this promotion has not eased the anger prevailing inside Israel over its inability to decisively end the battle in Lebanon.

In another effort to improve the image of the confrontation with Hezbollah, Israel revealed additional details about the pager explosions operation. Among them, it said the Mossad relied on a sophisticated infiltration of the supply chain through real individuals and companies that had previously dealt with Hezbollah.

One of them was a woman whom Israel claims was named Theresa, who allegedly played a key role in convincing Hezbollah to increase its order from 500 devices annually to 5,000 devices in March 2024. The effort was reportedly part of a campaign led by a Mossad official, who operated under the cover of a businesswoman named Layla.

According to the Mossad report, extensive discussions took place within Hezbollah regarding the purchase of the new devices amid suspicions of a possible security breach. However, the need to replace older communication devices pushed the group to proceed with the deal.