{"id":327446,"date":"2026-05-29T06:55:07","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T06:55:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=327446"},"modified":"2026-05-31T07:48:40","modified_gmt":"2026-05-31T07:48:40","slug":"hezbollahs-cheap-easy-to-get-drones-have-israeli-soldiers-diving-for-cover","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=327446","title":{"rendered":"Hezbollah\u2019s cheap, easy-to-get drones have Israeli soldiers diving for cover"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1 style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Chris Brown \u2013 CBC News May 28, 2026<\/strong><\/h1>\n<p>On the battlefields of southern Lebanon, the world&#8217;s most advanced air defence network is being bested by small drones that can be bought online, duct-taped with explosives and flown directly into Israeli military vehicles.<\/p>\n<p>Hezbollah, the Lebanon-based militia that was once feared for its powerful arsenal of rockets and missiles, has pivoted to using drones, both out of necessity and shrewd adaptation.<\/p>\n<p>Many of its top leaders have been killed and its inventory of missiles and launchers is believed to be severely depleted because of Israeli attacks.<\/p>\n<p>The change in tactics has had consequences for IDF troops occupying southern Lebanon.<\/p>\n<p>Eleven Israeli soldiers have been killed since the U.S.-sponsored ceasefire was agreed to on April 16,\u00a0and of those CBC News has found <a href=\"https:\/\/www.timesofisrael.com\/soldier-killed-in-south-lebanon-by-hezbollah-drone-another-seriously-wounded\/\">references<\/a> to four deaths that were the result of drones.<\/p>\n<p>One of the more recent casualties was 19-year-old Sgt. Nehoray Leizer, who was killed on May 24 when the armoured personnel carrier he was driving was hit by a drone. Another soldier was seriously injured.<\/p>\n<p>Last Wednesday, the IDF<a href=\"https:\/\/www.timesofisrael.com\/10-soldiers-including-brigade-commander-hurt-in-separate-hezbollah-drone-attacks\/\"> announced<\/a> 10 soldiers were wounded in two drone attacks, one seriously.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It creates quite a serious tactical problem for the Israelis,&#8221; said Robert Tollast, a land warfare specialist with the London-based Royal United Services Institute, a military think-tank.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The longer they [Hezbollah] can persist with this threat, then it starts to have strategic implications. As more Israeli soldiers are killed and wounded &#8230; the effects will add up.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>In response to the surge in drone strikes,\u00a0Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday said he ordered the IDF to increase the intensity of its attacks against the militant group.<\/p>\n<p>In another indication of the pressure Israel&#8217;s government is feeling, far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich urged the widespread bombing of the Lebanese capital in response.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;For every explosive drone, 10 buildings should fall in Beirut,&#8221; he <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/bezalelsm\/status\/2058853476097036771\">posted<\/a>.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<div id=\"attachment_327451\" style=\"width: 806px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/A-Hezbollah-drone-operators-view-of-an-Israeli-missile-site.avif\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-327451\" class=\"wpa-warning wpa-image-missing-alt wp-image-327451 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/A-Hezbollah-drone-operators-view-of-an-Israeli-missile-site.avif\" alt=\"\" width=\"796\" height=\"488\" data-warning=\"Missing alt text\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/A-Hezbollah-drone-operators-view-of-an-Israeli-missile-site.avif 796w, https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/A-Hezbollah-drone-operators-view-of-an-Israeli-missile-site-300x184.avif 300w, https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/A-Hezbollah-drone-operators-view-of-an-Israeli-missile-site-768x471.avif 768w, https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/A-Hezbollah-drone-operators-view-of-an-Israeli-missile-site-480x294.avif 480w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 796px) 100vw, 796px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-327451\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A Hezbollah FPV operator&#8217;s view of an Israeli missile site<\/p><\/div>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Lessons from Ukraine<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Hezbollah appears to have been watching developments in Ukraine closely.<\/p>\n<p>The battlefields of that country&#8217;s eastern front are characterized by the rapid advancement of drone warfare, with both Ukraine and Russia rushing to innovate and deploy increasingly sophisticated UAVs, or unmanned aerial vehicles.<\/p>\n<p>One of the key breakthroughs has been the use of kilometres-long spools of fibre optic cable to tether drones to their operators and remove the possibility that radio transmissions could be blocked.<\/p>\n<p>The cable also gives the operator a high-quality view of the landscape and potential targets below.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Fibre optic is almost ideal if you are a good [drone] pilot and you&#8217;ve planned the route &#8230; you could potentially attack soldiers on the other side of a hill, and you&#8217;re not going to lose that radio signal,&#8221; said Tollast.<\/p>\n<p>While Ukraine and Russia now mass-produce and fly thousands of drones every day, Hezbollah appears to be relying on more conventional methods of obtaining them, such as <a href=\"https:\/\/alhurra.com\/en\/20203\">ordering them<\/a> on e-commerce sites such as AliExpress.<\/p>\n<p>The Alhurra media site reported Lebanese customs had no restrictions on importing spools of fibre optic wire.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\" style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Hezbollah-armed-drone.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wpa-warning wpa-image-missing-alt aligncenter size-full wp-image-327171\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Hezbollah-armed-drone.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" data-warning=\"Missing alt text\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Hezbollah-armed-drone.jpg 800w, https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Hezbollah-armed-drone-480x270.jpg 480w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 0px) and (max-width: 480px) 480px, (min-width: 481px) 800px, 100vw\" \/><\/a><span style=\"color: #000080;\">.<\/span><\/div>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Eluding Israeli air defences<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Israel&#8217;s military has penetrated up to a dozen kilometres into southern Lebanon, demolishing buildings and attacking what it calls &#8220;terrorist infrastructure&#8221; in an effort to neutralize Hezbollah&#8217;s ability to launch rockets into northern Israel.<\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s left its troops vulnerable to drones that can fly low and avoid Israeli air defences.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s very difficult to detect these quadcopters. They don&#8217;t leave much of a signature,&#8221; said Yaakov Lappin, an Israel-based military and strategic affairs analyst and research fellow with the Alma Research and Education Center.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;They&#8217;re basically a nightmare for any radar detections.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Hezbollah social media and TV channels are filled with short videos showing purported attacks on Israel troops and military equipment.<\/p>\n<p>CBC&#8217;s visual verification team has examined more than half a dozen videos posted on official Hezbollah sites and determined the first-person view (FPV) videos are likely authentic and not the product of AI.<\/p>\n<p>One video published on Wednesday showed what appeared to be a Hezbollah quadcopter hitting a multimillion-dollar Israeli anti-missile system positioned behind a fortified wall. It&#8217;s unclear what, if anything, was actually damaged.<\/p>\n<p>In one of the most dramatic incidents on April 26, at least one <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/ELMObrokenWings\/status\/2048812305593303086\">Hezbollah drone<\/a> attacked a group of Israeli soldiers performing a medical evacuation after an <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/NewsForbiddenX\/status\/2048628297987424703\">earlier drone strike<\/a> killed one soldier and injured six others.\u00a0CBC was able to verify two videos showing this incident.<\/p>\n<p>Lappin says Hezbollah also uses its drones as roadside bombs by landing them near where Israeli soldiers might be heading and then waiting for an opportunity to launch again.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;They call it &#8216;perching,&#8217; where they sort of go to sleep and they can be reactivated again,&#8221; Lappin said. &#8220;They&#8217;re not going to be physically detected until someone physically sees them.&#8221;<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Delayed reaction<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Earlier this month, Netanyahu <a href=\"https:\/\/www.timesofisrael.com\/netanyahu-says-project-to-counter-drone-threat-underway-but-will-take-time\/\">said<\/a> he had initiated a &#8220;counter-drone project&#8221; but warned that developing effective counter-measures will &#8220;take time.&#8221; On Monday, he <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/news\/world\/lebanon-israel-strike-hezbollah-9.7212091\">said<\/a> he had authorized more intensive strikes on Lebanon in response to the surge of drone attacks.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The IDF had warnings about this and it&#8217;s been late,&#8221; said Lappin about the drone threat.<\/p>\n<p>Subsequently, the IDF said it has installed roughly 58,000 square metres of mesh netting to protect its vehicles and troops, with more coming.<\/p>\n<p>Other potential drone counter-measures include using AI-enhanced gun sights called &#8220;smart shooters&#8221; that soldiers can fire at drones from the ground with a high degree of accuracy.<\/p>\n<p>Some Israeli tanks are also equipped with &#8220;active protective systems&#8221; that use small radars to detect incoming objects, such as anti-tank missiles, and then fire counter-measures at them just before they&#8217;re about to hit.<\/p>\n<p>The IDF &#8220;weren&#8217;t expecting this fibre optic threat to come to their doorstep so quickly,&#8221; said Tollast, the RUSI expert. &#8220;[Hezbollah&#8217;s] drone operators seem to have picked this up relatively quickly.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Tollast believes the Israelis will be able to adapt quickly. &#8220;But it&#8217;s a question of changing training, changing doctrine and I don&#8217;t think that&#8217;s going to happen overnight.&#8221;<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>&#8216;Psychological terror&#8217;<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>It&#8217;s not just the drones&#8217; damage to vehicles and physical threat to troops that&#8217;s worrying the IDF \u2014 it&#8217;s also their ability to panic soldiers and civilians, says Lappin.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It [creates] a psychological terror, because the IDF soldiers know that there&#8217;s a race against time to come up with solutions and until those solutions are in place, they&#8217;re going to feel exposed,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>Hezbollah&#8217;s drone innovations have implications far beyond the battlefields of southern Lebanon and northern Israel.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We are going to be entering a situation where basically any adversary, non-state terrorists, some of them supported by nefarious actors, are going to be able to deliver air threats pretty much anywhere in the world,&#8221; said Lappin.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This is like a poor man&#8217;s air force and therefore &#8230; a wake-up call for everybody, the whole of the West. This threat is very, very accessible.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/news\/lebanon-israel-drones-9.7208324\">Source<\/a><\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>IDF Troops Run As Hezbollah&#8217;s Killer Drone Strikes with Explosive Warhead | Firstpost America<\/strong><\/h2>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Firstpost America \u2013 May 28, 2026<\/strong><\/h3>\n<div align=\"center\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/mjAv52p3KvU?si=_5Om9ZNrVmSeBbV4\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><br \/>\n&#8212;<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=mjAv52p3KvU\">Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s referred to derisively as \u201cthe poor man\u2019s air force\u201d. But Hezbollah&#8217;s drones are taking a toll and have Israeli troops in southern Lebanon desperately diving for cover    <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":327449,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[51,37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-327446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-Iran","category-Israel_Anti-Semitism_Zionism_and_US-UK_allies"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=327446"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327446\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":327457,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327446\/revisions\/327457"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/327449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=327446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=327446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=327446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}