Hezbollah adopts a new weapon: Fiber-optic drones, used widely in the war in Ukraine

TEL AVIV — Hezbollah has launched a new weapon against northern Israel in the latest round of fighting: small drones controlled with fiber-optic cables the width of dental floss that avoid electronic detection

TEL AVIV — Hezbollah has launched a new weapon against northern Israel in the latest round of fighting: small drones controlled with fiber-optic cables the width of dental floss that avoid electronic detection.

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These drones — used widely in the war in Ukraine — are small, hard to track and lethal. Drones killed an Israeli soldier in southern Lebanon and injured at least a dozen others in northern Israel on Thursday, two seriously. A soldier and defense contractor were killed in Lebanon earlier this week.

Many drones are susceptible to electronic jamming by air defenses. Jamming can cause a drone to crash or return to its point of origin.