Tel Aviv —
The small drones cruise – undetected – over the skies of southern Lebanon and northern Israel, searching for targets.
Footage recorded by the explosive-laden devices shows them, one after another, finding and striking their targets: the weak spot on an Israeli Merkava tank. An Iron Dome air defense battery. A group of unsuspecting Israeli soldiers.
Fiber-optic, first-person view (FPV) drones have become a key weapon in the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah’s war against Israel in recent months – bypassing Israel’s sophisticated defense systems by duplicating an asymmetric warfare tactic that first emerged in the Russia-Ukraine war.
At least 12 Israeli soldiers have been killed by Hezbollah’s drones since the conflict reignited in March – one third of Israeli fatalities in Lebanon – and the military is scrambling to find ways to counter the threat.
