IDF investigates drone interception failure after Hezbollah attack on Golani base

The IDF revealed on Monday that 221 out of 1,200 drones have landed in Israel in some fashion, though a much smaller undefined number have actually struck populated areas or killed or wounded Israelis.

Of the 1,200 drones that the IDF defined as a threat, it has shot down 80%, said the IDF, though other unofficial estimates taking into account different categories of drones have put the estimate of shoot-down success closer to 70%.

These revelations come after the IDF failed to shoot down a drone on Sunday night, which killed four Golani soldiers and wounded or lightly injured around 60.

According to the IDF, the air defense systems tracked the drone in question and fired on it twice, thinking that it was shot down in the Mediterranean Sea.

They were also simultaneously tracking two other drones, which were shot down, but all of this seemed like a sideshow to a huge barrage of rockets that Hezbollah fired around the same time into northern Israel.

Eventually, the air defense systems lost track of the drone, and it flew over Israel near highways for a full 30 minutes to reach its pre-GPS programmed target of the Glani base in the Binyamina area, north of Tel Aviv.

Struggles with drone threats

Although the IDF has been working on a solution to the drone problem for several months, it still has had limited success.

The IDF said it would push its radar and warning systems toward lowering the bar for sounding an alert, even at the price of more false alarms.

Further, recognizing that neither this nor other new efforts to defend against drones may be sufficient, the IDF said it would increase its efforts to target and kill Unit 127 Hezbollah commanders, its drone unit.

However, the IDF has already killed a large number of such commanders, and drones can be sent out and operated by fairly low-ranked fighters whose identities would often not be known.