Hezbollah’s drones a fierce and evasive threat to Israel

TEL AVIV (AP):

One of the worst mass casualty strikes on Israel in a year of war came not from dozens of Iranian ballistic missiles or the repeated barrages of rocket fire launched by Hamas and Hezbollah. Instead, it was a single drone.

The unmanned aerial vehicle, laden with explosives, evaded Israel’s multilayered air-defense system and slammed into a mess hall at a military training camp deep inside Israel, killing four soldiers and wounding dozens.

It is the latest achievement for Hezbollah’s drone fleet and has shone a light on Israel’s struggle over the past year of war to knock down unmanned aircraft incoming from as far away as Yemen, Iraq, and Iran.

Over the years, Israel has built up its aerial defence array to provide broad protection against short-range rocket fire and medium- and long-range missiles although experts caution that it is not airtight. While the system has taken down drones repeatedly, many have penetrated Israel’s airspace and sidestepped its defences, in some cases with deadly results.

On Sunday evening, reports emerged of a mass casualty event about 65 kilometres (40 miles) from the Lebanese border. A drone had slammed into a mess hall filled with troops eating dinner, according to Israeli media, killing four soldiers and wounding 67 people.

Minutes earlier, air raid sirens had blared in northern Israel as the aircraft flew overhead. But no sirens sounded at the base, giving the soldiers no advance warning and indicating that the drone may have fallen off Israel’s radar.

An Israeli security official said Israel was still investigating how the drone made it through Israel’s air defences. A pair of drones initially entered Israeli airspace, but while one was shot down, the other one continued to its target.

Hezbollah, which said the attack was in response to Israeli strikes in Lebanon, said the drone was “able to penetrate the Israeli air defense radars without being detected” and reach its target. It claimed that it had outsmarted Israel’s air defences by simultaneously launching dozens of missiles and “squadrons” of drones simultaneously.

It was the second deadly drone strike in just two weeks. Earlier this month, a drone launched from Iraq killed two Israeli soldiers and wounded roughly two dozen, according to Israeli media. On Friday, during a major Jewish holiday, a Hezbollah drone slammed into a nursing home in central Israel, causing damage.

“We already have six dead in the past 10 days from drones. That’s too much,” said Ran Kochav, a former head of the Israeli military’s aerial defense command.

Drones, he said, “have become a real threat”.

Drones, or UAVs, are unmanned aircraft that can be operated from afar. Drones can enter, surveil, and attack enemy territory more discreetly than missiles and rockets. Israel has a formidable arsenal of drones, capable of carrying out spy missions and attacks. It has developed a drone capable of reaching archenemy Iran, some 1,500 kilometres (1,000 miles) away.

But Israel’s enemies have caught Israel off-guard on a number of occasions over the past year, often with deadly consequences. In July, a drone launched from Yemen travelled some 270 kilometres (160 miles) from Israel’s southern tip, all the way to Tel Aviv, slamming into a downtown building and killing one person without it having been intercepted.

The Israeli security official said drones are harder to detect for a number of reasons: They fly slowly and often include plastic components, having a weaker thermal footprint with radar systems than powerful rockets and missiles. The trajectory is also harder to track. Drones can have roundabout flight paths, can come from any direction, fly lower to the ground and — because they are much smaller than rockets — can be mistaken for birds.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation into the mess hall strike was still under way.

Kochav said that Israel spent years focusing on strengthening its air defense systems to improve protection against rockets and missiles. But drones were not seen as a top priority. During the current fighting, that has meant that Israel’s ability to detect and intercept drones is not as successful as its capabilities in the face of rockets and missiles, Kochav said.