BEIRUT — On Sunday, Hezbollah carried out one of its most notable attacks since the start of its fighting with Israel last October, killing four Israeli soldiers and wounding 67 others in a single drone attack that targeted the cantine of a military base in Binyamina, south of Haifa.
Before Sunday, the Hezbollah attack against Israel with the most injuries was rocket hit on a community center in Arab al-Aramshe in April that killed one reserve soldier and wounded 17 others.
In a statement, Hezbollah said that it launched on Sunday evening dozens of missiles toward various targets in the cities of Nahariya and Acre to occupy the Israeli air defense systems while launching, at the same time, "squadrons of drones, some of them used for the first time, towards various areas in Acre and Haifa."
The group added that the drones successfully reached their target in a training camp for the elite Golani Brigade in Binyamina.
Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that an initial investigation conducted by the Israeli air force indicates that "three drones were launched on Sunday night, one was brought down by an Israeli navy boat, the second by the Iron Dome, and contact with the third — the one behind the attack — was lost north of Acre."
The conflict between Hezbollah and Israel escalated into a full-blown war on Sept. 23 when the latter launched a large scale bombing campaign against southern and eastern Lebanon followed by an Israeli ground operation one week later. Since last October, over 2,300 people have been killed in Israeli attacks in Lebanon, according to the Ministry of Health.
What do we know about Sunday's attack?
'Disappeared from radar'
Nicholas Blanford, a researcher at the Atlantic Council, told L'Orient Today that the drone, which entered Israel from the sea, was being tracked by the Israeli army before it disappeared from the radar.
"Presumably, whoever was flying the drone, would have lowered the drone's altitude to evade the Israeli radar and for the drone to become invisible shortly before hitting the target," Blanford said.
According to Blanford, it remains unclear whether Hezbollah used the Ababil-T or the Sayyad 107 drone. According to the Israeli newspaper Yediot Achronot, the Sayyad 107 has a range of about 100 kilometers (60 miles) and a wingspan of 1.5 to 2 meters (5 to 6.5 feet).
"Drones of this type have infiltrated Israeli airspace dozens of times during the ongoing war, causing damage to infrastructure and buildings," the Israeli newspaper added.
Yediot Achronot reported that the flight path of the Sayyad 107 can be programmed to "frequently change altitude and direction, making it difficult to detect and track and its detection relies on the heat emitted by the engine, which is also challenging to identify via optical means."
"It's possible that the UAV was pre-programmed to sharply descend toward the ground or the sea and continue flying at low altitude, exploiting the coastal terrain and then the hills of the coastal plain to evade interceptors," the newspaper added.
Meanwhile, the Iranian Ababil-T, also known as the Mirsad-1, has a 120-kilometer assault range, a top speed of 370 kilometers per hour, the capacity to carry up to 40 kilograms of explosives, and the ability to fly at altitudes of up to 3,000 meters, according to the controversial Israeli Alma Research Center, which is closely affiliated with the Israeli army,
The neighborhood of Binyamina, where the targeted Israeli military base is located, is more than 60 km from the Lebanese-Israeli border.
According to the Israeli army radio station, the drone fired a rocket at the base before crashing into a dining area inside the base. Blanford said if this is true, it must be an S5 missile, which is an old Soviet-era missile, that Hezbollah used for the first time in the current conflict back in May in an attack that targeted the Israeli village of Metula near the border with Lebanon.
According to Blanford, Sunday's drone hit could have been made by an operator flying it while looking at a screen, which would require a lot of skills especially since it was already dark at the time of the attack (around 7 p.m.).
Blanford added that there is also another possibility, which consists of a "pre-program flight using GPS coordinates." However, he said it is unclear whether Sayyad 107 and Ababil-T drones have this capability as they are usually flown by an operator.
According to Haaretz, the drone "flew with the help of a GPS system, which enables a precise strike at the target" and does not require for someone to navigate it during the flight.