The IDF estimates that despite intelligence efforts, Hezbollah operates a force of about 100 skilled drone operators.
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According to a report by Doron Kadosh on IDF Radio, the vast majority of the operators were trained during the previous ceasefire - November 2024-March 2026 - and almost all of them are currently operating south of the Litani River.
Less than 10 of them have been eliminated so far.
- The IDF recognized from the end of the previous campaign ("Northern Arrows") that Hezbollah was placing emphasis and focus on developing explosive drones. The organization understood that this was an area that was not sufficiently developed for it, and for a year and three months of the ceasefire, a force-building process was underway, in which Hezbollah both purchased and assembled explosive drones, and trained terrorists to operate them.
- In June 2025, about a year ago, there was even a wave of attacks across Lebanon in which the IDF hit a large number of drone and UAV manufacturing workshops.
- Hezbollah's explosive drones do not sit under one unit or one formation in the organization - like Unit 127, which is the air unit that operates the drones. In the case of the explosive drones - the operators are scattered among the various units in the southern Lebanon region, and each is subordinate to the geographical unit in which they operate, and some are operatives of the Radwan unit. This is also one of the reasons that makes it difficult to hit them - there is no single unit with unified command and control that is responsible for the area, but rather there is a wide dispersion of operatives in all of the organization's units.
- The IDF estimates that there are about 100 qualified operators of explosive drones in Hezbollah. Because this is a complex operation that requires training and practice, not every terrorist in the organization can operate the drones with the optical fiber - and must have the necessary training. The vast majority of the qualified drone operators were trained during the previous ceasefire (between November 2024 and March 2026).
- Due to the relatively limited number of drone operators, the IDF believes that intelligence and operational focus on them is the most important thing: attacking the drone operators could suppress, at least temporarily, the problem that is troubling the IDF.
- So far, the IDF has eliminated only a very few of the drone operators - according to estimates, between 5 and 10. "It's not enough," says a senior officer, "We are making technological and intelligence efforts to locate the drone operators - and to harm them. Their number is finite - they are the bottleneck.".
- Even these days, Hezbollah is trying to train additional operators.
- Since the optical fiber used by Hezbollah in the vast majority of drones is 10-15 km long, the vast majority of drone operators operate south of the Litani - but outside the "Yellow Line" areas, that is, north of the security zone where the IDF controls southern Lebanon. However, the IDF does not rule out the possibility that in a few cases, there are also Hezbollah terrorists who manage to penetrate the Yellow Line - and operate from within the Israeli security zone - mainly those who launch the drones deeper, into Israeli territory.
- The IDF is investigating one of the most serious drone strikes of the war - which Hezbollah released documentation of yesterday: a strike on an Iron Dome battery. Army sources confirmed that such a strike did indeed occur, but that it did not cause an "operational gap" in the air defense system in the north.
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