Northern Israel under threat: Hezbollah's menacing drone force raises concerns
Over the past several years, the use of drones in armed conflicts such as the war between Armenia and Azerbaijan and the Russia-Ukraine War, as well as by several Iranian proxy militias, has revolutionized battlefield tactics around the world.
Ironically, one of the countries that pioneered the military use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in the past, Israel, has now been suffering daily drone attacks on at least five fronts for over half a year.
Hamas used cheap, small commercial drones to great effect during its surprise attack on October 7, even causing the IDF to hurriedly install metal cages over its tanks to prevent drones from dropping explosives on them.
While Iran-backed militias in Syria and Iraq, and even the Yemeni Houthi rebels, have launched drones against Israel once in a while, the Lebanese terror militia Hezbollah has raised the intensity of its drone attacks to the point of carrying out more than one drone attack per day during the month of April.
After launching its attacks on Israel last October, mainly using rockets and anti-tank missiles, the terror group has increasingly relied on drone attacks – killing and wounding numerous Israelis over the past few months.
Contrary to this, most of Iran’s drones are meant to explode upon impact on the target and are, therefore, often called “suicide“ or kamikaze drones.
Because they are relatively simple and cheap to produce, in effect, they function as low-cost cruise missiles, delivering relatively large warheads at high precision and low cost.
Lebanese terrorists have been the main benefactors of their Iranian sponsors’ armament program over the past decades, which has increased in pace after the Syrian Civil War enabled Iran to strengthen its grip on the country, allowing it to facilitate larger and more frequent shipments through Syria.
Israel has worked tirelessly in an effort dubbed the “war between wars” to thwart the covert arms smuggling to Hezbollah, carried out by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps(IRGC) through Iraq and Syria.
Nevertheless, it is estimated that Hezbollah managed to amass a huge arsenal of weapons, including some 150,000 rockets and missiles, as well as an estimated 2,000 drones of various types and ranges.
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