After Hezbollah's Strike... Questions Arise About the Effectiveness of Israeli Air Defense Systems

After Hezbollah's Strike... Questions Arise About the Effectiveness of Israeli Air Defense Systems
This attack highlights the importance of continuous development in drone technologies and air defense systems, indicating a new technological arms race in the Middle East
October 14, 2024, 11:41 pm

القبة الحديدية الإسرائيلية

Following the bloodiest losses in the Israeli army's ranks in a single day since the conflict began over a year ago, through the most violent "Binyamina raid" ever, questions are being raised about how Hezbollah's drone reached the military facility and Israel's failure to intercept it - an unprecedented event for one of the region's strongest armies.

The army is investigating how the drone reached its target, its ability to evade radars, the failure to sound warning sirens, and to determine if there was human error or negligence. Meanwhile, Hezbollah claims that the drone used is a new model previously unused and unknown to the Israelis.

The attack, which targeted a restaurant inside a military facility in Binyamina south of Haifa, resulted in dozens of Israeli officers and soldiers being killed and wounded while gathered for dinner.

Military expert Ismail Abu Ayoub considers the Binyamina raid a "qualitative strike" from all aspects and for several reasons. He explains to "Al-Hurra" website that "the attack proved that no air defense system is capable of detecting and intercepting targets 100% of the time, and in the world of armament, there are always surprises and unexpected events."

He added that "the drone used in the raid might be made of materials that radars cannot detect (non-wave reflective), such as Bakelite, fiberglass, and plastic."

He continued, "This drone may be equipped with an engine that doesn't emit infrared radiation, possibly a small electric motor, and there's a factor that contributed to the drone reaching its goal, which is the study of weak points in radar detection."

Hezbollah - listed as a terrorist organization by the United States and other countries - announced in a statement late Sunday night that it targeted "one of the elite Golani Brigade camps in Binyamina south of Haifa city (...) unknown to many settlers."

The party reported, "In a qualitative and complex operation, the rocket force (...) launched dozens of rockets towards various targets in the Nahariya and Acre areas to distract Israeli air defense systems, and simultaneously, the air force (...) launched swarms of various drones, some used for the first time, towards different areas in Acre and Haifa, where the qualitative drones managed to penetrate Israeli air defense radars without being detected and reached their target in the Golani elite brigade training camp in the Binyamina area south of Haifa city."

The Israeli army announced late Sunday night that four of its soldiers were killed in "a drone attack that penetrated the airspace from Lebanese territory and exploded at a military training base" near Binyamina in central Israel.

Fifty-eight soldiers were wounded in the attack, seven critically, nine moderately, and the rest lightly. Israeli Army Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi considered the attack on Monday as "difficult and painful," stating, "We are at war, and an attack on a training base in the home front is difficult and its results are painful," during his inspection of the base.

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