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The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) acknowledged on May 23 that one of its soldiers was killed a day earlier in a drone attack near the Lebanese border.
The slain soldier served as a technology and maintenance soldier in the 401st Brigade, according to the military, which noted that one soldier was seriously wounded and a non-commissioned officer was lightly wounded in the same drone attack.
This was the ninth IDF soldier to be killed in southern Lebanon since the start of the ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah which was brokered by the United States. He is also the 22nd to be killed since hostilities between Israel and the group escalated amid the Iran war. A civilian contractor was also killed in southern Lebanon.
Staff Sgt. Noam Hamburger (Israel Defense Forces)
Hezbollah’s drone units have been launching daily attacks using fiber optic-guided first person view (FPV) suicide quadcopters, targeting IDF forces in southern Lebanon, and across the border in northern Israel.
Recent days saw a notable increase in drone attacks, with the group sharing videos of nine strikes, including one that targeted a launcher of the Iron Dome air defense system near the IDF’s Jal al-Alam site in northern Israel on May 18.
Fiber optic-guided FPV suicide quadcopters have been a gamechanger for Hezbollah. These cheap, easy to make drones made up for the supply routes Hezbollah lost in Syria, and turned what Israel planned to be a safe zone in southern Lebanon into a kill zone.
The IDF is said to be working on a solution to the threat posed by Hezbollah’s fiber optic-guided FPV suicide quadcopters — which are completely immune to electronic warfare — but defense officials have cautioned that a system to counter such drones will not come soon, and will not provide complete protection.
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