25 October 2024

Why Hezbollah is having more success with its drones after a year of war - analysis

SETH J. FRANTZMAN

More and more drones are getting through Israeli defense systems. On Saturday, Hezbollah launched an unmanned aerial vehicle attack on Israel, one of which targeted the home of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Caesarea. This strike comes in the wake of a deadly drone assault a week ago that killed four Golani soldiers and wounded sixty at an IDF base near Binyamina.

These follow another deadly UAV attack in the Golan, carried out by Iraqi militias. The drones appear to have become more effective, deadly and precise, and there may be various reasons for this.

According to Ynet, “Hezbollah’s latest tactic involves combining heavy rocket barrages with drone strikes to overwhelm Israeli air defenses, aiming to cause confusion and increase damage from interception debris, with casualties from drones steadily rising.”

That might not be the only reason. Israel’s enemies possess a plethora of UAVs of varying types, including the ones that have been filmed and photographed in recent attacks. The videos of Saturday’s strike showed a relatively normal type of attack drone that has a wing, fuselage and a V-shaped tail. The Houthis used a similar one to hit Tel Aviv in July, resulting in one fatality. A strike on Yom Kippur that targeted Herzliya appeared to use a similar drone.

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