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A fire broke out at a warehouse of the Lebanese Ministry of Telecommunications in the capital, Beirut, on June 23, sparking speculations of links to Hezbollah’s drone program and Israeli sabotage.
The first at the warehouse in the area of Dekwaneh, belonging to the Ministry of Telecommunication’s Ogero company, spread to two nearby buildings before being put down, according to Lebanese Civil Defense, which said that two firefighters were wounded during the operation.
Lebanese security sources later told the German news agency DPA that the Ogero warehouse contained fiber-optic cables.
The incident triggered speculation about possible involvement by Hezbollah, which recently began using fiber-optic-guided first-person view (FPV) suicide quadcopters against the Israeli military in southern Lebanon.
Among the theories circulating were that fiber-optic cables had been stolen and the fire deliberately set to conceal the theft.
These theories were amplified by Saudi Al-Hadath TV, which reported, citing Lebanese security sources, that the fire at the Ogero warehouse was deliberately set. According to the same sources, the company suspects organized theft of fiber-optic cables from the warehouse.
All of these theories, however, ignore the fact that traditional commercial fiber-optic cables used in communication infrastructure can’t be actually used with drones as they are typically heavily coated and inflexible. Drones require lightly-quaded cables especially wound for zero-tension center-pull deployment.
Based on this, it can be theorized that the first at the Ogero warehouse was in fact set by the Israeli intelligence in order to generate more internal pressure in Lebanon against Hezbollah, specifically against its drone program.
Under pressure from Israel and other countries, the Lebanese government has been already cracking down on the imports of commercial drone components.
Hezbollah’s fiber-optic-guided FPV suicide quadcopter didn’t just inflict serious losses on the Israeli military during the current round of fighting, but even hindered its ability to advance in southern Lebanon. The military has been struggling to counter the threat, with Israeli defense officials saying that no solution will come any time soon.
These drones, which are cheap and easy to make, have been very much a gamechanger for Hezbollah, allowing the group to restore some of the power balance it lost in the previous confrontation with Israel. Thus, it is not surprising that the latter would do anything to try to stop it.
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