Hezbollah's drones pose 'threat' Israel finds difficult to confront: Report

By Zein Khalil

JERUSALEM (AA) - An Israeli media outlet reported on Saturday that Hezbollah's suicide drones pose a threat that the Israeli air defense system finds difficult to confront.

“After more than 7 months since the outbreak of the war, Hezbollah continues to present new capabilities against the Israeli army, which struggles to deal with the threat,” the Israeli Channel 12 stated in its report.

“In addition to the threat of missiles and anti-tank shells, Hezbollah increasingly uses suicide drones that can penetrate (Israeli) borders and cause casualties and damage,” added the channel.

It further said estimates indicate that “Hezbollah possesses several thousand drones that it manages to smuggle into Lebanon despite years of Israeli attacks on Iranian arms shipments through Syria.”

Channel 12 continued that the Lebanese group “launches its drones, which are extremely small in size, over very short ranges of just a few kilometers inside Israeli territory, and at low altitudes, making it very difficult for air defenses to detect and intercept them.”

“It has been shown more than once that the drones that penetrated Israel were not detected by the surveillance system at all, and those eventually found were by Israeli citizens.”

Supposedly, these drones are supposed to be intercepted by Israel's multi-layered defense system, including the Iron Dome batteries, aircraft, and attack helicopters.

However, “even fighter jets equipped with advanced air-to-air missiles find it difficult to intercept the drones due to their low altitude, slow speed, and small size,” according to Channel 12.

Estimates from the Alma Research and Education Center suggest that Hezbollah owns over 2,000 drones of diverse types, some of which it produces with Iranian assistance.

According to the channel, the main drone used by Hezbollah in its attacks against Israel is the “Mirsad,” which is a version of the Iranian "Ababil" drone.

It clarified that it's "a small drone with a warhead weighing between 20 and 40 kilograms (44-88 pounds), with a speed of about 200 km/h (124.2 miles/h)."

It noted that "the operation of Iranian drones is relatively simple; they are small and uncomplicated flying tools, most of which are equipped with GPS and autonomous guidance systems."

“This means that the operator's crew feeds the suicide drone and then launches it towards Israel, where it navigates independently until it collides with the target,” the channel added in its report.

While "Hezbollah" launches several suicide drones daily, one after the other, fears in Israel are increasing about launching a swarm of these drones suddenly, similar to the barrage of rockets and drones launched by Iran towards Israel last month.

On April 14, Iran launched an attack against Israel with hundreds of rockets and drones, which Tel Aviv claimed to have successfully repelled with the support of its international partners.

The channel continued: "Unlike the night of Iranian rockets, such a scenario (Hezbollah launching a swarm of suicide drones) will be more challenging due to the quantity, low flying, and short range, which affects the detection and warning time."

It added that despite the Israeli army's confirmation that it is prepared for such a scenario, "it must be prepared for the possibility that in events of this kind, a considerable number of suicide drones will succeed in penetrating the Israeli defense wall."

* Writing by Rania Abu Shamala