When an armed quadcopter buzzed over Lebanon’s southern border into Israel on May 19, one Israel Defence Forces (IDF) soldier raced up a nearby hill and attempted to snag the drone’s fibre-optic control cable with a piece of scrap metal.
The remarkable scene captured by photojournalists at the militarised border provided the clearest example yet seen of the fibre-optic drones – first pioneered by Russian soldiers and now ubiquitous in Ukraine -- being used by Iranian-backed Hezbollah militants.
It also highlights the vulnerability of even the world’s most advanced militaries to the cheap drone innovation.
In the past month, Hezbollah militants have killed three IDF soldiers and one Israeli civilian using kamikaze drones controlled through kilometres-long fibre-optic cables.
In response, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the formation of a team to counter the tethered drone threat. Israel is furnishing the task force with an “unlimited budget”, amid growing controversy in the country over the lack of preparedness for a weapon that first emerged in 2024.
