TEHRAN – Hezbollah continues to confront Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) in southern Lebanon and target soldier and vehicle gatherings with drones.

In its latest operations, the Lebanese resistance movement targeted an IOF Namer armored personnel carrier in the town of Debel with a loitering drone, achieving a direct hit. 

In six separate operations, resistance fighters targeted IOF gatherings of military vehicles and soldiers near the port of Naqoura, Rishaf, Naqoura, Debel, Hadata, and in Tayr Harfa with a swarm of loitering drones, confirming direct hits.

Hezbollah further announced that an IOF artillery emplacement in Rishaf and Aita al-Shaab was targeted with loitering drones, while a similar emplacement in Bint Jbeil was also struck with a loitering drone.

Earlier, the IOF had admitted that the commander of the 401st Armored Brigade was seriously wounded, while a combat officer and a reserve soldier were also injured, due to an exploding drone blast in southern Lebanon.

The regime’s news site Walla, citing senior IOF officers, reported that “the situation in southern Lebanon poses a major challenge to Israeli (occupation) forces because staying in the same area for a long period, while Hezbollah operates fiber-optic drones that are very difficult to detect and intercept, presents a very significant operational challenge.” 

Walla, citing military sources, revealed details of the injury to 401st Brigade Commander Colonel Meir Biderman, whom Hezbollah targeted. It noted that Biderman entered “a building in southern Lebanon that was defined as protected in order to rest inside it, and was then attacked by a drone.”

Citing the same sources, it pointed out that “Hezbollah succeeded in gathering intelligence, tracking Israeli (occupation) army activity in the area, detecting the forces’ presence inside the building, then executed the attack on the building where the brigade commander was inside. He was seriously wounded and remains under sedation and on artificial respiration after surgery to remove shrapnel from his head.” 

The IOF announced that due to another exploding drone strike, a soldier was seriously wounded, a combat officer was moderately wounded, and two other soldiers were also moderately wounded. Additionally, a combat officer and two other soldiers were lightly wounded.

Hebrew news outlets have reported that ten IOF soldiers have been injured, some in serious condition, amid two separate incidents involving Hezbollah’s attack drones. 

Haaretz noted that the 401st Brigade commander had been appointed after the previous brigade commander was killed in Jabalia in the Gaza Strip. The newspaper acknowledged that “the current round of fighting in Lebanon is characterized by the increasing danger posed by Hezbollah’s exploding drones.”

The newspaper quoted military sources as saying that the “exploding drones” operated by Hezbollah via fiber optics have become the primary source of injuries in the army, which cannot find technological or electronic solutions to shoot them down. Investigations indicated that operational indiscipline and failure to follow protection instructions led to severe injuries, most recently the serious wounding of Colonel Biderman. 

Also, reserve paratrooper officer Major Itamar Spier was killed in a clash with a Hezbollah fighter in southern Lebanon. During his regular service, Spier was an officer in the elite Maglan unit. The newspaper noted, “A very thin layer of soldiers continues to bear the burden of the war and pay the heaviest price.”

In details of an incident revealed by Haaretz, a platoon commander in the Golani Brigade, Captain Maoz Recanati, was killed by a loitering drone fired by Hezbollah while he was securing an inspection tour for 36th Division Commander Brigadier General Yeftah Norkin near the Litani River. The newspaper confirmed that the tour was conducted during daylight, defying risks imposed by Hezbollah, even though the army now restricts its movements in that area to nighttime for fear of drones. 

Reservist Colonel Hanoch Dauba said, “The story goes beyond a timing mistake for a field tour,” stressing that the army lacks real operational control over the area. Dauba highlighted, “There is presence and destruction of infrastructure, but the enemy, which we were told suffered a crippling blow, still dictates the operational pace and battle conditions.”

In the absence of a political vision, field commanders told Haaretz their primary mission has become “bringing soldiers home safely,” amid the continuous threat from the Lebanon front. Reservist Major General Tamir Hayman described the goal of “dismantling Hezbollah” as impossible, asserting that “the army is incapable of occupying Lebanon or forcing the group’s disarmament, especially given the acute manpower crisis.” The newspaper noted that the IOF’s chief of staff is raising “ten red flags” warning about the state of his force’s manpower.

Hezbollah’s military media has been publishing almost daily footage on its Telegram channel of its fiber-optic drones attacking IOF soldiers, vehicles, tanks, and even the regime’s Iron Dome. 

On Thursday, the occupation army radio stated that the IOF “detected two armed men in southern Lebanon hundreds of meters from the border fence opposite the settlements of Bir’am and Doviv. A drone was called in and carried out a strike at the location.”

According to Hebrew Channel 12, “security officials estimate that this was an attempted infiltration” into northern settlements “with the aim of carrying out an operation. Following the incident, residents of the settlements of Doviv, Bir’am, and Metat near the fence were instructed to remain inside their homes.”

The same channel reported that “residents in the settlements near the fence said after being informed of the incident: How can armed elements reach the fence while the Israeli (occupation) army is inside southern Lebanon?”