Hezbollah's fibre-optic drones pose new challenge for Israel

Hezbollah’s cheap fibre-optic drones are creating new challenges for Israeli troops in southern Lebanon, forcing the military to adapt its tactics against an increasingly lethal threat.

The Israeli military — considered one of the most advanced in the world — has confirmed two soldiers and one civilian contractor killed in explosive drone attacks in under a week, with several others wounded despite a ceasefire in place since mid-April.

The devices are small, cheap and readily available, like “children’s toys”, explained Orna Mizrahi, a senior researcher at Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies (INSS).

The military “does not have nowadays any response for that, because they didn’t prepare themselves for such low-tech explosives”, she told AFP.

Israel has been fighting Lebanese Hezbollah since early March, deploying troops into the neighbouring country’s south to confront the Iran-backed militant group.

Since then, violence has continued, with both sides accusing each other of breaching the ceasefire.

Unlike conventional drones guided by GPS or radio, which can therefore be jammed, Hezbollah is using devices linked to their launch site by a thin fibre-optic cable that can stretch for dozens of kilometres.

Operators pilot the drones in first-person view (FPV) using screens or virtual reality goggles that require limited training.

“Since the drone does not transmit the image via radio broadcast and does not receive guidance commands via a radio receiver, it cannot be detected by electronic intelligence means or blocked through electronic warfare,” said Arie Aviram, an expert who has written on the subject for the INSS.

The drones’ speed and precision means they can cause considerable damage to Israeli targets, and their lack of electronic traces leaves troops reliant on radar or visual detection, which often comes too late.

Asymmetrical warfare

Hezbollah’s use of these drones is characteristic of asymmetrical warfare, explained INSS researcher Mizrahi.

In recent days, Hezbollah has relied more on these drones, a notable shift from the barrages of rockets it unleashed in the weeks after the war broke out.

Experts say the cost of assembling the fibre-optic drones can range from just a few hundred dollars to around $4,000 depending on the quality and type of components, which can be bought on online platforms such as AliExpress.

On Friday, the group’s media chief Youssef al Zein confirmed the group was using the drones and said they were being manufactured in Lebanon.

“We are aware of the enemy’s superiority, but at the same time we are exploiting its weak points,” he said.

For Israel, shooting down cheap drones using sophisticated air defences and fighter jets is unsustainable and costly.

Aviram said that lasers, like those used by Israel’s Iron Beam air defence system, could be a suitable solution “provided they were widely deployed”, which is not yet the case.

Indicating the challenge posed by these devices, the Israeli defence ministry put out a public call on April 11 for “proposals to identify additional capabilities to address the threat of fibre-optic-controlled FPV drones”.

Nets and barriers

A video shared on social media by Israeli journalist Amit Segal on Wednesday appeared to show military vehicles draped in netting to protect against drones. AFP was unable to verify the footage.

A senior military official told journalists on Tuesday that “so far, we’re using force protection technologies and other protections that we learned from other places, from our own experience with nets, with barriers”.

“But it’s a threat that we’re still adapting to, there’s nothing that is foolproof,” the official added, noting that the military was “learning” from the war in Ukraine, where fibre-optic drones are now common.

Israeli news website Mako reported in 2024 that Ukraine — which has become a world-leading drone expert since Russia’s invasion — offered its expertise to Israel several years ago but was rebuffed.

“There was no concrete response,” Ukraine’s former defence minister Oleksii Reznikov told Mako at the time.

Asked by AFP about the challenges posed by fibre-optic explosive drones, the Israeli military said troops had in recent weeks “conducted an in-depth analysis of how this threat operates and how Hezbollah employs it”.

“The IDF is monitoring the drone threat and developing operational methods to address it,” it said, adding that troops on the ground were “continuously working to improve and adapt their systems in order to deal with the evolving threat”.