A Buzzing Death: How Hezbollah’s Drones Took over Occupied Skies

Hezbollah’s air force proved itself to be one of the major highlights of their involvement in the broader Al-Aqsa Flood. For over a year, the Lebanese Islamic Resistance grew into a larger and larger thorn in the eye of the Zionist regime as these iron birds continued to catch “Israeli” defenses off guard.

The Lebanese Islamic Resistance isn’t foreign to humiliating its Zionist enemy, where Arab armies of old failed in confronting this cancerous tumor in the region, Hezbollah was there to suppress its spread three times now.

The main crux to “Israel’s” Vietnam is Hezbollah’s adaptability. The group is in a constant state of self-improvement, bending and molding to fill in any cracks that may form despite taking on the role of the smaller force.

Through its decades of work on its drone technology, Hezbollah was able to penetrate deep into occupied skies and successfully reach targets like the Golani Brigade training facility in Binyamina, leading to dozens of casualties in “Israel’s” elite force.

The buzzing call of the Lebanese Islamic Resistance’s iron bird struck terror in the hearts of the occupation across their involvement in this war, proving that their ever-growing drone fleet is one of the key players to ensuring that “israel” will not have a monopoly on the skies of our lands.

Hezbollah’s air force beginnings

Hezbollah’s air force had its footing back in the 1990s when Martyr Hassan Lakkis — who saw the weapon as unique and one that would be dependent on in future wars — led a group into developing the technology that would make the party’s enemies fear the skies. This force first started with simple gliders with the intention to carry out martyrdom missions but soon transitioned to drones with the rise in technological developments.

The main objective of Hezbollah’s air force was set, that “Israel’s” dominance of the skies will not be allowed.

Hezbollah would work alongside Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) after the “Israeli” retreat in 2000, in which a significant workshop led to the rise of a series of reconnaissance and attack drones.

Fast forward a few years, and the initiative showed great success with Hezbollah during the 2006 war as it was able to breach the defenses and radars of the “Israeli” army in targeting Haifa and other major sites in occupied Palestine. Operations conducted at that time were both information gathering and offensive means.

In the years following the July war, both Hezbollah and the Zionist enemy made significant technological advancements. “Israel,” with the backing of America and other European nations, excelled quickly in regard to their technological capabilities. It’s no secret that the Zionist occupation houses the most advanced weaponry in the region, and resistance leaders admit to this fact.

To combat the spike in technological development in the hands of the “Israeli” regime, Hezbollah had to enter a new phase wherein they would not only have to deal with the more advanced radars and air defense systems that the Zionists possess but also learn how to better their drone fleet in the face of “Israel’s” watchful eyes.

Information Gathering

The Lebanese resistance turned the threat of “Israel” finding out about their drone testing and production from something that would have resulted in a major security threat to its advantage by filtering what their enemy was allowed to see and what was to remain confidential.

During Hezbollah’s involvement in Syria, and despite “Israeli” surveillance, the Party’s air force made massive gains in reconnaissance and offensive efforts with the goal of operations always remaining clear with how to improve in combat against “Israel.”

Given that some positions in the Syrian war under the Resistance Axis’ control were a stone’s throw away from the occupied Golan Heights, there were multiple points where Hezbollah was able to test its abilities against “Israeli” defenses.

As one Hezbollah air force commander told the Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar, “The enemy assumed several times that it had downed our drones or taken control of them, but all of this was part of a plan we had prepared to achieve certain goals. We were able to understand their detection capabilities and the functioning of their radar systems, as well as the ranges of their air defense weapons.”

The use of dummy drone operations by Hezbollah was vital to the development of anti-radar and jamming technology, increasing its capabilities of breaching deep into “Israeli” territory.

Alon Ben David, a military affairs analyst on Channel 13, said Hezbollah’s drones show up on radar devices with signals similar to swans, making it “very difficult” for the “Israeli” defenses to target them accurately. 

Hezbollah found such success with their capabilities to gather anti-radar information through these intentional downing operations that the Party, in one operation’s case, sent a drone deep into occupied lands, beating defense systems and a helicopter chase, and reaching its goal of targeting “Israeli” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s house.

Economic and psychological warfare

“Israel” continues to pump hundreds of millions of dollars into defense and radar systems, having defense sites spaced 30 km apart across the northern border. These sites, although plenty, continued to fail as low-cost Hezbollah drones were able to breach the air space and take out not only drone-specific defenses but be able to conduct strikes deep into the occupied territories.

The economic factor of Hezbollah’s drone warfare against “Israel” in this war is nothing to overlook. As explained by the Hezbollah drone air force commander, the “Israeli” army has three tiers of defense against air aggression from resistance fighters.

The first line of defense is the Iron Dome – $50,000 per missile to which up to four are launched at a time – when that defense fails, the “Israeli” army calls on warplanes that cost $40,000 per hour of use. When the Zionist air force fails, it relies on the Patriot defense system, costing $3 million per rocket used.

The cost ratio of “Israel’s” defense systems as compared to Hezbollah’s offensive drones is almost comedic as the Lebanese resistance has shown it is capable of launching drones that cost a few thousand dollars at most deep into occupied lands, costing them hundreds of thousands as these lines of defense engage and subsequently fail as Hezbollah’s mechanized birds reach their targets.

After the attack in Binyamina, Hezbollah wrote in a statement, “the decision of the leadership of the Islamic Resistance was to discipline this enemy and show some of the many things it is capable of at any time it chooses and any place it wants, whether secret or public.”

Following the statement then Deputy Secretary General Naim Qassem said on 15 October that “since the enemy targeted all of Lebanon, we have the right, from a defensive position, to target any point in the enemy entity.”

Ben David warned the “Israeli” public that “Hezbollah is learning from the weaknesses it had at the beginning of the fighting.” The wounds caused by Hezbollah through its projectiles, but also skirmishes on the border area, not allowing elite “Israeli” forces to break even a kilometer into Lebanon despite tank and air support, are infecting the “Israeli” psyche.

Fulfilling the promise

Hezbollah promised during its year-long fight against “Israel” that if the Zionist forces continue to terrorize the people of the region, the Party would only further escalate its operations. This is not only a militaristic threat but a nod to the psychological warfare tactics that Hezbollah perfected.

The Lebanese resistance, as well as the Yemeni, Iraqi, and Iranian forces, showed settlers in areas from Kiryat Shmona to Eilat that they were not safe from being targeted by resistance projectiles. Those in Tel Aviv, for example, once believed that they only had to deal with Palestinian rockets before the beginning of the Al-Aqsa Flood, but recently found themselves under skies housing fleets of attack drones, as well as hypersonic and ballistic missiles, all with the capabilities to cause immense damage.

Hubris remains “Israel’s” Achilles heel as it continues to boast about its operations against Hezbollah, not knowing that Hezbollah’s most powerful strength isn’t its drones, rockets, or manpower, but its versatility as an armed resistance group, in addition to its faith in God. They do not make empty threats in an attempt to just scare the enemy; they have had over forty years to train and ensure that attacks will be successfully carried out against Haifa, and past Haifa, and even further past Haifa.