Hezbollah's slow drones have become a deadly headache for Israeli defense systems
Jonah Fisher
Post, BBC News
15 October 2024
Slow-moving and small but cheaply produced drones have become a deadly headache for Israelis.
Four soldiers were killed and dozens wounded in a Hezbollah attack on the Bin Yamina military base in northern Israel on Sunday, the country's deadliest drone strike to date.
However, after this attack, questions are being raised about Israel's very expensive air defense systems, how capable these systems are of stopping such attacks.
The Israeli Defense Minister, who visited the affected military base on Monday, said that "a lot of efforts are being made to find a solution to such drone attacks in the future."
Some parts of the Israeli air defense system do indeed work systematically. In northern Israel we heard intermittent explosions as Iron Dome hit Hezbollah rockets fired from southern Lebanon. Israel claims that up to 90 percent of the targets were hit.
But Iron Dome works because Hezbollah's rockets are so rudimentary that it is possible to predict where the rockets will land and therefore be intercepted. is But intercepting drones is a more complex task and is a recurring problem in this war.
In July, Houthi rebels from Yemen sent a drone that managed to reach Tel Aviv. In October, the Israeli military said a drone fired from Iraq killed two soldiers in the Golan Heights. A few weeks later, another drone struck a nursing home in central Israel.
Dr. Yehosha Kulsky is a senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv. "Most of the drones are made in Iran and then they are provided to Iranian-backed groups in Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen," he told the BBC.
It should be noted that drones are difficult to detect with radar because they can fly at very low levels. Such drones look like birds on radar.
"They are also difficult to intercept with the help of fighter jets because they are very slow and travel at a speed of 200 km per hour, compared to a fighter jet at 900 km per hour," explains Dr Yehosha Kulski. fly from.'
Israeli media reports indicated that two Hezbollah drones, believed to be Zayad 107s, were shot down by Lebanon on Sunday, one of which was shot down while the other disappeared and was presumed dead. That he crashed. However, the drone later crashed into a canteen at an army base.
"Drones don't just survive by luck," says Sreet Zahani of the Alma Research Institute.
Sarit Zahani lives nine kilometers from the Lebanese border and saw the events that unfolded on Sunday from the balcony of her home. "As soon as the drones were attacked, rockets were fired and alerts were issued on the border, but the air defense system failed to stop them," he told the BBC.
His organization has so far recorded about 559 cases in which drones entered Lebanon from Israel's northern border with the intention of espionage or attack. Apart from the attack on the military base on Sunday, according to him, drones have killed 11 people so far.
In addition to the Iron Dome defense system, the Arrow Two and Arrow Three defense systems, which were designed to destroy ballistic missiles, are also active in Israel. Soon the American THAAD system will also be installed in Israel.
Currently, Israel is trying to find a permanent solution to stop the drone attacks.
Dr Yehosha Kulsky says that 'a very powerful laser is being worked on, while another technology is a microwave cannon that will burn the drone's electronics.'
They hope that this new technology will be available to Israel in the near future.
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#Lebanon #The_Middle_East #Palestine #Israel
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