{"id":796352,"date":"2026-05-14T18:00:27","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T18:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/796352\/"},"modified":"2026-05-14T18:00:27","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T18:00:27","slug":"hezbollah-drone-threat-is-serious-but-blown-out-of-proportion-idf-tells-toi-in-lebanon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/796352\/","title":{"rendered":"Hezbollah drone threat is serious, but blown out of proportion, IDF tells ToI in Lebanon"},"content":{"rendered":"

KHIAM, Lebanon \u2014 Hezbollah drones are not affecting Israeli operations in southern Lebanon in any meaningful way, IDF officers told The Times of Israel on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe drone threat is strictly a tactical threat and not a strategic threat,\u201d said a company commander in the Givati Brigade\u2019s Tzabar Battalion, currently fighting under the command of the 769th \u2018Hiram\u2019 Brigade.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am saying this intentionally, because I also have family back home who are maybe worried about the drone threat, which I have to say has been blown out of proportion,\u201d continued the officer.<\/p>\n

The army is certainly paying attention to the threat from Hezbollah drones. \u201cJackhammer\u201d \u2014 the warning code when a hostile drone is detected in the area \u2014 was declared on the radio during the drive from Kiryat Shemona to Khiam, a mostly Shiite village three miles (five kilometers) from the Israeli border.<\/p>\n

Not long after, another Jackhammer warning was sounded, and the Israeli journalists on the tightly-controlled IDF-arranged tour of Khiam were forced to enter a badly damaged building for cover.<\/p>\n

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No drone was spotted.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"
\n\t\tAn M548 cargo carrier at an Israeli military artillery site near the northern border community of Shomera that was hit by a Hezbollah drone on April 30, 2026. (Used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)<\/p>\n

At the same time as the visit, Hezbollah launched several drones that exploded near Israeli troops elsewhere in southern Lebanon, according to the IDF. Additionally, the IDF said two apparent drones were shot down by air defenses.<\/p>\n

Hezbollah has had successes with its drone strikes in recent weeks. Since the April 16 ceasefire, Hezbollah has killed 4 IDF soldiers and one civilian through drone attacks, and wounded dozens more.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"
\n\t\tA company commander from the IDF Tzabar Battalion in the Givati Brigade speaks to The Times of Israel in Khiam, Lebanon, May 13, 2026. (Lazar Berman\/The Times of Israel)<\/p>\n

On Thursday, three Israeli civilians were wounded<\/a>, two seriously, in a Hezbollah drone attack in the Rosh Hanikra area.<\/p>\n

\n

We don\u2019t take it lightly for a second. But it\u2019s a tactical threat and not a strategic one.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u201cThe threat exists,\u201d said the officer. \u201cWe don\u2019t have any right after October 7 to dismiss any threat. We don\u2019t take it lightly for a second. But it\u2019s a tactical threat and not a strategic one.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fighting continues as planned,\u201d he noted, \u201cwith the appropriate adjustments for the drone threat to protect the lives of our soldiers and bring them home safely, with the central mission of protecting the residents of the north.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Soldiers from the IDF Tzabar Battalion in the Givati Brigade operate in Al-Khiam, Lebanon, May 13, 2026 (Lazar Berman\/The Times of Israel)<\/p>\n

\u201cWe got this,\u201d said another company commander, adding that Hezbollah\u2019s reliance on drones launched from many miles away shows \u201cthat the enemy are cowards.\u201d<\/p>\n

Drones are \u201cour main threat,\u201d said Capt. L. \u201cI think that\u2019s good. It only underscores how far away the enemy is from us.\u201d<\/p>\n

The troops \u201cabsolutely\u201d have the tools to deal with it, said the first officer. \u201cThere are many capabilities \u2014 whether they are technological or whether they are older \u2014 and they all help us deal with the threat.\u201d<\/p>\n

Closing the circle<\/p>\n

Though more than half of Kiryat Shemona\u2019s 24,000 residents are internally displaced across Israel in the face of Hezbollah drone and rocket attacks, the fields along the border with Lebanon are green and well-tended.<\/p>\n

Surprisingly, the same goes for the fields on the Lebanese side of the border.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"
\n\t\tA view of Kiryat Shmona, February 12, 2026 (Matanya Tausig\/Flash90)<\/p>\n

The houses in the Christian Tel Hamamis village are not destroyed either. The hamlet\u2019s vineyards, a sure sign of a Christian area, undulate in neat rows over the hills below Khiam.<\/p>\n

As the vineyards give way to the Shiite Muslims\u2019 olive trees,\u00a0 the destruction takes hold. Some stone homes lie in jagged piles, while others stand drunkenly with gaping holes in their walls.<\/p>\n

The red-roofed houses in the majority-Christian Marjayoun across a valley also remain standing, further evidence of how differently Israel is treating its historical allies in Lebanon than its enemy of four decades, the Shiites.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"
\n\t\tA soldier places a cigarette into the mouth of a Virgin Mary statue in Debel, southern Lebanon, in a photo circulated online on May 6, 2026. (Used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)<\/p>\n

But soldiers have been caught mistreating Christian shrines and property in a series of embarrassing incidents.<\/p>\n

On Monday, the IDF sentenced<\/a> two soldiers to jail for placing a cigarette in the mouth of a statue of the Virgin Mary in Debel, a Christian village in southern Lebanon, a picture of which was shared widely online last week.<\/p>\n

Debel was the village where a soldier smashed a statue of Jesus<\/a> last month, as well as the place where soldiers were seen in footage showing military excavators damaging solar panels<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn every war, there are outlier incidents,\u201d insisted the first officer. \u201cOur soldiers are ethical, they understand what we are doing here. These incidents are not widespread.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI know it doesn\u2019t happen in my battalion,\u201d he continued. \u201cWe don\u2019t loot. We don\u2019t use things that we find here in the field.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI heard about the incidents. We reject them,\u201d said Capt. L. He said that the battalion conducts briefings and conversations with the soldiers to make sure there are no violations of orders or law.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"
\n\t\tThe wife of Cpt. Yohai Kalangel mourning during his funeral at the military cemetery on Mount Herzl, in Jerusalem on January 29, 2015. (photo credit: Yonatan Sindel\/Flash90)<\/p>\n

The officers from the Tzabar Battalion repeatedly told The Times of Israel that their conquering of Khiam in March was \u201cthe closing of a circle.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2015, Hezbollah fired an anti-tank missile from the town at IDF troops on Mount Dov, killing<\/a> Major Yochai Kalangel and Staff Sergeant Dor Chaim Nini from the battalion.<\/p>\n

Tunnels under children\u2019s clothes<\/p>\n

At the beginning of the US-Israel campaign against Iran, the Tzabar Battalion was deployed just over the border.<\/p>\n

Hezbollah began firing rockets and missiles at Israel on March 2, and Israel responded by pushing north, retaking territory that it held until the November 2024 ceasefire, and moving beyond to the Litani River.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"
\n\t\tIDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir (left) in southern Lebanon\u2019s Khiam, May 6, 2026. (Israel Defense Forces)<\/p>\n

Within 10 hours of receiving orders during the first week of March, one of Tzabar\u2019s companies had already captured the infamous prison in Khiam.<\/p>\n

In subsequent raids further north in the town, the battalion noticed that it kept encountering and spotting Hezbollah gunmen around certain buildings on the town\u2019s main strip, according to IDF officers.<\/p>\n

They concluded that Hezbollah was protecting some military asset, and moved to capture the area. The IDF soldiers killed 6 Hezbollah operatives, and searched a building where an Islamic charity was distributing children\u2019s clothing.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"
\n\t\tA children\u2019s clothing charity in Khiam, Lebanon, under which Hezbollah dug a tunnel complex, May 13, 2026 (Lazar Berman\/The Times of Israel)<\/p>\n

They found that Hezbollah had turned it into a fighting complex. Its fighters had broken holes through internal walls, allowing them to move unseen between buildings.<\/p>\n

Soldiers found a radio, RPGs, and Kalashnikov rifles.<\/p>\n

Most significantly, they found a well-built tunnel complex 25 meters underground.<\/p>\n

The tunnel, which The Times of Israel entered, is far more elaborate than Hamas tunnels in Gaza. A metal ladder descends onto a spiral staircase, which reaches a small landing before another spiral staircase descends into the main tunnel. Gaza\u2019s tunnels are low and sandy, topped by concrete arches.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"
\n\t\tA hole in a wall in a children\u2019s clothing charity that Hezbollah turned into a fighting position in Khiam, Lebanon, May 13, 2026 (Lazar Berman\/The Times of Israel)<\/p>\n

Built into bedrock, the Hezbollah tunnel has a high ceiling, supported by sturdy metal frames. Hallways run for dozens of meters, with electric generators and water systems in small side rooms. Hezbollah fighters\u2019 prayer rugs, clothing, and even Nutella cocoa spread sit on shelves along the tunnel.<\/p>\n

The tunnel under the children\u2019s clothing charity would allow Hezbollah fighters to avoid being struck by Israeli shells, while moving undetected between firing positions and buildings.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"
\n\t\tA soldier from the IDF Tzabar Battalion in the Givati Brigade in Khiam, Lebanon, May 13, 2026 (Lazar Berman\/ The Times of Israel)<\/p>\n

The soldiers now understand what Hezbollah was trying to protect in Khiam.<\/p>\n

An emptied town<\/p>\n

The Tzabar Battalion continued to push northward after the fighting in central Khiam.<\/p>\n

Before the ceasefire took effect in Lebanon last month, the battalion raided the village of Dibbine, killing over 20 terror operatives.<\/p>\n

Dibbine is located nearly 12 kilometers (nearly 7.5 miles) north of Israel\u2019s border.<\/p>\n

Hezbollah does not try to fight Israel face-to-face anymore, said L.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t feel the enemy,\u201d he said. \u201cThe enemy is totally shattered in this area.\u201d<\/p>\n

So is Khiam. Every building in sight was destroyed or damaged, and the town, which once had almost 30,000 residents, is totally empty now.<\/p>\n

It might stay that way for a long time.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t see a situation in which we leave and residents return,\u201d said the first officer. \u201cAfter October 7, we understand that it doesn\u2019t work, and everywhere they return they rebuild infrastructure and threaten the residents of the north.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t have the privilege of leaving the area until there is a solution that totally removes the threat.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"KHIAM, Lebanon \u2014 Hezbollah drones are not affecting Israeli operations in southern Lebanon in any meaningful way, IDF…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":796353,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[306516,5755,177509,324911,99,324909,324910,50,130393],"class_list":{"0":"post-796352","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-2026-israel-hezbollah-conflict","9":"tag-drones","10":"tag-givati-brigade","11":"tag-hezbollah-tunnels","12":"tag-israel","13":"tag-khiam","14":"tag-marjayoun","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-southern-lebanon"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116574241260436506","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/796352","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=796352"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/796352\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/796353"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=796352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=796352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=796352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}