TEHRAN- Lebanon’s Hezbollah Resistance movement has launched a drone reconnaissance drone flight named “Hassan” inside the occupied Palestinian Territories 

According to Hezbollah, the reconnaissance mission extended for a length of 70 km north of occupied Palestine 

Hezbollah says despite all the enemy's multiple and successive attempts to bring it down, the "Hassan" plane returned safely to Lebanon. 

According to Hezbollah, the drone toured the target area for 40 minutes during its “successful” reconnaissance mission. 

Lebanese media affiliated with Hezbollah say the “Hassan” drone is not the first reconnaissance plane sent by the resistance to occupied Palestine and it will not be the last. 

However, it is the first publicly known reconnaissance plane that has managed to fly for as long as 40 minutes to evade the Israeli regime’s efforts to bring it down and return to Lebanon. 

Hezbollah’s media relations office issued a statement regarding the latest development (in Hezbollah’s military arsenal that flew over occupied Palestine). The statement said:  

On Friday, February 18, 2022, the Islamic Resistance launched the “Hassan” drone inside the occupied Palestinian territories and toured the targeted area for forty minutes on a reconnaissance mission that extended along seventy kilometers north of occupied Palestine.

The statement went on to say: and despite all the enemy’s attempts; the multiple and successive efforts to shoot down the “Hassan” plane, it returned from the occupied territories safely after it successfully carried out the required mission and despite all the attempts that the enemy exhausted within its possession [to shoot down the drone] this did not affect the [intended] mission and direction of the drone”. 

Following the resistance movement’s announcement about its drone mission, Israeli warplanes flew over the southern suburbs of Beirut at a low altitude.

The Israeli occupation has also admitted its failure to shoot down the drone that entered occupied Palestine from Lebanon.

Journalists stationed in occupied Palestine had reported hearing sirens sounding in the occupied Golan and Israeli settlements near southern Lebanon, as a result of the plane entering the airspace of occupied Palestine. 

Israeli media say "the sirens in the north sent the [setters] into shelters amid preparations for Saturday" stressing that "there was panic".

A spokesman for the occupation’s army confirmed that “the plane crossed Israeli airspace while claiming the [regime’s] reconnaissance devices were tracking its path” adding that “helicopters and warplanes were called in, and interception missiles were launched from the [so-called] Iron Dome system, but without the success of any interception, and warnings were activated on the home front, but the plane returned to Lebanon”. 

Israeli media have also quoted the occupation army as saying "the drone was lost, and it was not shot down."

Earlier, the Secretary-General of Hezbollah, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, speaking in memory of the resistance movement’s martyred leaders; addressed the Israeli regime by saying the Lebanese resistance has started manufacturing military drones inside the country, and has the technology to turn thousands of missiles in its possession into precision-guided munitions.

Writing on social media, Or Heller, a military affairs commentator for the Israeli regime, highlighted that it was "another major failure of the Iron Dome system in the north, and it raises many difficult questions”. 

Israeli media have discussed in length the details of the path of the "Hassan" drone, and have indicated that "the Israeli army’s current priority is to return to the status quo that prevailed before the Hezbollah plane breached the Israeli occupied Palestinian border”.

The military affairs correspondent for the Israeli regime media, Nir Dvory, described the entry of the "Hassan" drone, launched by Hezbollah, into the airspace of occupied Palestine, as a "successful attempt by Hezbollah."

Dvory says "this plane was not armed, as the Air Force says. It appears that it was on an intelligence-gathering mission, and it may have been carrying a camera"

Dfoury added, "After the plane passed from Lebanon to Israel, they tried to shoot it down twice, through helicopters and through the Iron Dome system. However, after believing that it had succeeded in intercepting it south of the Safed [settlement], they discovered that it had succeeded in turning around and returned to Lebanon."

The war correspondent pointed out that "the Air Force is currently examining itself, and is looking into whether this small plane could have been detected at an earlier time? Are there any means by which it could have been successfully shot down?"

Dfoury explained that if the plane "were armed and carried only hundreds of fines of explosive materials, its delay would not be as important as with a rocket-propelled grenade launched from Lebanon, but here there is an achievement in terms of awareness, from the point of view of Hezbollah. Of course, [Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah] will try to point this out in the next few hours or days”. 

The reporter emphasized that "just as Israel collects intelligence information on Hezbollah, and sends satellites, drones, and other things, so too, Hezbollah is trying to gather intelligence information on Israel."

He continued, "There are detection systems in most cases that succeed in shooting down these planes, but this time it was different”. 

"The Israeli army's response (to Hezbollah's drone) was exaggerated, warplanes, helicopters, sirens, and the Iron Dome did not succeed in intercepting it," said Roi Sharon, a military analyst with the regime’s Kan channel.  Sharon quoted a security source as saying that "the response was exaggerated... We gave [Sayyed] Nasrallah a moral victory."

The Israeli "Kan Channel" indicated that "the Israeli army will investigate the reason for the failure of the Iron Dome system to shoot down the drone, which entered Israel”.

The channel quoted the reserve brigade in the “army” of the Israeli occupation, Yitzhak Brik, asking: “How will the Israeli Air Force stop 3000 missiles and rockets daily on Israel and the home front, and it did not succeed in stopping a single drone?” He pointed out that “in the event of a war there will be hundreds of projectiles a day, and we are not ready for that”. 

Brik added, "Israel is expected, in the short and long terms, to have two national disasters, which will cost us thousands of victims, destroyed infrastructure, and set us back decades. It is an earthquake and a multi-areas war”. 

Another Israeli military affairs analyst Carmela Menashe commented on the incident of the drone, saying that "there is fear in the army and the security establishment about the issue of the drones, and their preparation for them, yet her objection has not succeeded”. 

And the Israeli newspaper, “Yedioth Ahronoth”, posted on its social media accounts, that "there is panic in the north following the breach of the drone," adding that "helicopters over our heads. We felt the war."

Observers argue its fair to say Hezbollah has sent shockwaves throughout the Israeli regime’s military apparatus. The intelligence it has gathered will also be extremely concerning to the regime. 

In 2000, Hezbollah resistance ended the Israeli military occupation of Lebanon that had at one point reached the Presidential palace in the capital Beirut. 

In July 2006, Israel waged a 33-day war on Lebanon and despite Tel Aviv’s advanced firepower, Hezbollah surprised the regime with its own weapons and military tactics. Following an internal probe; the regime acknowledged that it had lost the war, achieved none of its objectives and Hezbollah got the upper hand over Israel once again. 

Since then, the resistance movement has changed the military equation with the regime. 

According to many experts; unlike before when Israeli tanks and troops would enter and leave Lebanon as they wish, for more than two decades now, Hezbollah has brought peace and security to Lebanon and the regime occupying Palestine next door has to think twice about the consequences should it decide to target a single member of the Hezbollah movement no matter what rank they are; inside and outside Lebanon.