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Hezbollah and Israel Step Up Drone Attacks in Southern Lebanon
Hezbollah has published videos of more than 45 FPV drone strikes on Israeli forces in southern Lebanon since March, including 28 since a ceasefire took effect on April 16. Israel has reported three soldiers and one contractor killed in the attacks and has carried out its own drone strikes on Hezbollah.
May 12, 5:36 AM·2m read1 source
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Hezbollah and Israel have intensified the use of first-person view kamikaze drones in southern Lebanon in the weeks since a ceasefire was announced on April 16. The ceasefire halted Israeli attacks on Beirut but left Israeli ground forces in a buffer zone up to 10 kilometers inside Lebanon.
Hezbollah has used fiber-optic controlled FPV drones, which evade Israeli jamming systems, to target troops in the confined area. The group has released videos of more than 45 FPV attacks, 28 of them in the nearly four weeks after the ceasefire. Before the truce, the videos showed strikes on static positions or vehicles such as tanks and excavators, with no fatalities reported by Israel.
Israel has said three soldiers and one contractor were killed. Israel has responded with at least two FPV drone strikes on Hezbollah fighters in April, also releasing video footage. The Israeli military has reported near-daily drone launches against its forces in southern Lebanon.
Hezbollah began firing on Israel on March 2, days after U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran. The April 16 ceasefire in Lebanon followed a truce in the wider Iran conflict by one week. A basic FPV drone costs less than $400. Hezbollah fits Russian PG-7L anti-tank warheads onto the drones, turning them into longer-range precision weapons.
The group sources components from Chinese manufacturers available on online marketplaces. The drones use spools of fiber-optic cable up to 10 kilometers long to maintain a connection that Israeli radar cannot detect. Hezbollah's first FPV attack video is dated March 22.
Footage showing the warhead appeared on April 11.
