TEHRAN – Hezbollah is putting more emphasis on surveillance before taking direct military action against Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF).

Hezbollah has revealed that its resistance fighters fought a close-range battle with an IOF unit positioned north of the Lebanese village of Deir Siryan. According to a statement from the resistance movement, the fighters carefully monitored the IOF unit and opened fire as soon as it came within range of a frontline defensive position.

The occupying regime's unit had been trying to advance from Khallat al-Raj, north of Deir Siryan, toward the eastern Lebanese town of Zawtar. Hezbollah noted that its fighters fired at the hostile force and engaged in a fierce, point-blank battle using light and medium weapons, inflicting confirmed casualties on the enemy.

Hezbollah added that the IOF unit quickly carried out heavy fire cover to evacuate its forces and the wounded, bringing several military vehicles toward the clash zone. In response, Hezbollah artillery targeted the evacuation force with shells and appropriate rockets.

The Lebanese resistance movement also stated that its anti-aircraft machine guns, operated by the air defense unit, intervened to prevent the IOF helicopters from maneuvering or landing near the incident site. This forced the occupying regime’s infantry to withdraw the wounded by land toward the Misgav Am settlement, from where they were airlifted to the Israeli regime hospitals.

The IOF acknowledged on Tuesday that it had come under attack from Hezbollah in separate incidents. 

Earlier, Hezbollah also monitored and targeted a gathering of IOF soldiers and their vehicles near the reservoir in the town of Al-Qantara with a rocket barrage.

Resistance fighters also struck a newly established IOF command site in Al-Bayyadah using dive drones, accurately hitting their targets.

Hezbollah’s military media has released more footage showing the Lebanese resistance targeting an IOF Humvee vehicle in the town of Al-Bayyadah, southern Lebanon, using a dive drone.

Similarly, Hezbollah’s military media published footage of resistance forces targeting an IOF engineering vehicle in the city of Bint Jbeil, with a dive drone.

Hezbollah continues to carry out its operations to defend Lebanon and its people. It is also responding to the Zionist regime’s violations of the ceasefire and to attacks on villages in southern Lebanon that have killed and wounded civilians.

The Secretary-General of Hezbollah, Sheikh Naim Qassem, said on Monday that there is no ceasefire in Lebanon, but rather an ongoing American-Israeli aggression. He added that words are not enough to condemn the targeting of civilians, villages, towns, the destruction of homes, and the killing of children, women, men, and the elderly.

Sheikh Qassem stated that this aggression aims to steal rights, occupy land, and control the future by force, while the Resistance seeks to liberate land and achieve justice. He concluded that the enemy cannot achieve its goals against the Resistance, no matter how powerful or arrogant it becomes.

In other operations on Tuesday, Hezbollah targeted an IOF Merkava tank in the town of Al-Bayyada with a guided missile, “achieving a confirmed hit and it was seen burning.”

Another IOF Merkava tank was targeted in the town of Al-Qawzah, “using an attack drone, achieving a direct hit.” A third was struck with a guided missile and an IOF helicopter was over the town of Al-Bayyada with a “surface-to-air missile, achieving a direct hit.”

Hezbollah fighters targeted a gathering of IOF vehicles and soldiers in the town of Al-Bayada while striking two Israeli regime D9 bulldozers with attack drones, achieving a direct hit. The bulldozers were targeted while demolishing civilian homes in southern Lebanese villages. 

An IOF Namer vehicle in Deir Seryan was also targeted “with an attack drone, achieving a direct hit.”

Hezbollah’s use of fiber-optic guided drones has proven very effective on the battlefield. Hebrew newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reported that “most of the losses suffered by the (IOF) in southern Lebanon in recent weeks are due to booby-trapped drones, fiber-optic guided booby-trapped drones, or drones that dropped bombs.”

Meanwhile, the regime’s Channel 13 has reported growing frustration within the IOF over the lack of a solution to the threat posed by explosive-laden drones and small unmanned aircraft.

According to military correspondent Or Heller, the level of frustration is high among both soldiers and commanders. He noted that “the cheapest, simplest, and perhaps most rudimentary weapon to operate” caused three IOF deaths and more than 20 injuries over the past week.

There is severe Israeli media censorship on the IOF war casualties. 

Heller added that senior IOF officers believe addressing the threat from Hezbollah’s drones cannot rely on defense alone, but also requires offensive action, targeting areas up to 20 kilometers beyond the so-called “yellow line,” meaning north of the Litani River.

Senior IOF officers have reportedly acknowledged that there is still no effective technological solution to counter this threat. This comes despite recent tests conducted about two weeks ago by the regime’s ministry of war, military, and defense industries on interception systems that are not yet fully developed.

This gap reportedly coincides with a reduction of the IOF in Lebanon. Units have been redeployed elsewhere, including the Paratroopers Brigade to Gaza, the Nahal Brigade to the West Bank, and the withdrawal of a Commando Brigade, potentially signaling a tactical shift amid heavy regime casualties.