An explosive drone snaked between the hills of southern Lebanon before striking an Israeli armored personnel carrier. Two days later, another slammed into a tank. Three days after that, a third pounded into a missile-defense system.<\/p>\n
Each day, multiple drones attack Israeli forces, the Israeli military has said, and with lethal effect. In the past week alone, they have killed three soldiers.<\/p>\n
The relentless drone attacks by Hezbollah, the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group, have exposed cracks in Israel\u2019s defenses, shocking its public and forcing a rushed search for solutions by its military and political leaderships.<\/p>\n
They have sown fear among Israeli ground troops in Lebanon and challenged Israel\u2019s longstanding air superiority in Lebanese skies. The drones have also revealed a shortcoming in Israel\u2019s strategy to seize territory in southern Lebanon, build a buffer zone and displace Hezbollah militants beyond the range of antitank missiles that have plagued tens of thousands of civilians living in northern Israel.<\/p>\n
The drone onslaught, however, was no surprise: As early as 2024, military officers warned that Hezbollah would likely start using drones that are controlled through thin fiber-optic cables to evade electronic jamming, according to three Israeli officials who insisted on anonymity because they were not authorized to speak with the media. Fiber-optic drones have also become commonplace on the battlefield in Ukraine.<\/p>\n
Despite the warnings, the military\u2019s top brass appeared to do little to prepare for the threat, the officials said. When Israeli soldiers started facing daily drone attacks in April, the military still had not adopted simple countermeasures that are routine in Ukraine, like suspending protective nets over stationary soldiers and equipment.<\/p>\n
\u201cTwo years ago, we discussed how Hezbollah would deploy these drones,\u201d said Guy Hazut, a reserve brigadier general who led an effort in the Israeli military to learn lessons between 2024 and 2025. \u201cBut the security establishment needs a slap in the face to wake up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Though it largely held its fire over the past year despite repeated Israeli strikes, Hezbollah, set back by a 2024 war, has re-emerged as a fighting force. After the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran began in late February, the militant group started firing rockets and drones at Israel.<\/p>\n
The Israeli military advanced deeper into Lebanon in a bid to stop Hezbollah\u2019s attacks. It has taken over dozens of villages in southern Lebanon and carried out widespread demolitions.<\/p>\n
The Israeli military has said its attacks target Hezbollah, but Israel Katz, Israel\u2019s defense minister, said the approach in southern Lebanon was meant to emulate tactics used by the military in Gaza, where entire neighborhoods were reduced to rubble.<\/p>\n
Over 3,400 people have been killed in Lebanon, according to the health ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians, and the government says more than 1 million have been displaced.<\/p>\n
And yet, Hezbollah has managed to strike the military with its drone attacks on Israeli territory, which have killed at least ten soldiers and one civilian since April.<\/p>\n
In a statement, the Israeli military said that it takes the drone threat \u201cvery seriously\u201d and that it was trying to find solutions to what it described as \u201ca complex technological and operational challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hezbollah has boasted about inflicting pain on Israel\u2019s technologically advanced military with the low-cost drones.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis challenge has started to shake the occupation army,\u201d Hassan Hejazi, the Arab affairs editor for al-Manar, a TV channel owned by Hezbollah, said in an interview in May with al-Manar.<\/p>\n
In a statement, a Hezbollah spokesman said that the drones have weakened the spirit of Israeli soldiers. And in May alone, Hezbollah published more than 30 videos of drones attacking Israeli military personnel and equipment. The videos, featuring dramatic music for maximum propaganda effect, appear to show stealthy drones zeroing in on Israeli soldiers.<\/p>\n
In one video, recorded on May 9, a drone approaches a military post in Shlomi, a town in northern Israel, and a soldier runs as fast as he can toward a fortified room. The drone crashes just as he reaches the entrance to the room. The video cuts off the moment the drone crashes, leaving it unclear whether the soldier was harmed.<\/p>\n
In response to mounting public criticism, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had ordered the establishment of a special team of experts to address the drone threat.<\/p>\n
\u201cI told them something that surprised them a bit: You have an unlimited budget,\u201d he said at a meeting with government ministers in mid-May. \u201cHowever much it costs, it costs.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the past, Hezbollah used radio signals to control attack drones, which the military could disable through electronic jamming. <\/p>\n
Now, the group mounts drones with explosives and spools of fiber-optic cable that unwind as they fly toward their targets, with an operator at the other end. Because these drones do not rely on radio signals, the main defense against them is to shoot them down or sever the cables.<\/p>\n
Soldiers on the ground have little time to try to shoot down the drones before they explode.<\/p>\n
The drone war came to the Israel-Hezbollah front after being pioneered and highly developed in combat between Ukraine and Russia. While drones used in that conflict can fly as far as about 50 miles, three Israeli officials said Hezbollah\u2019s fiber-optic drones so far had a range of only 12 miles.<\/p>\n
In January of last year, Ukrainian military officers visited Israel to explain how their military confronted the threat from Russian drones, according to two Ukrainian officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.<\/p>\n
In recent weeks, Israeli officials asked Ukraine to send another delegation, but the Ukrainian government conditioned a second visit on Israel increasing support for Ukraine\u2019s air defenses, according to the Ukrainian officials. The Israeli defense ministry declined to comment.<\/p>\n
Experts are now warning that the next big challenge for Israel is a tool that Ukraine is using to bring the fight to Russia and could be adopted by Hezbollah. Ukrainians have been incorporating SIM cards, like those in cellular phones, in drones for their offensive attacks on Russian territory.<\/p>\n
Analysts say that by using the mobile network, Ukraine was able to attack Russia from hundreds of miles away<\/a>, and in some cases, Russia had to shut down cellular networks<\/a> across entire regions to counter them.<\/p>\n