Hezbollah releases drone footage of Israel's Ramat David Airbase

This may be the first time an enemy drone has penetrated airspace above an Israeli military base

News Desk - The Cradle 

Hezbollah has published new video footage taken by one of its drones, showing detailed information about the Ramat David Airbase located 50 kilometers from the Lebanese border in northern Israel, Yedioth Ahronoth reported on 24 July.

According to the Lebanese resistance movement, the footage was taken on Tuesday by its Hudhud drone, which has previously filmed critical infrastructure in Haifa Bay and military bases in the Golan Heights.

The drone video released by Hezbollah is the third in a series called “This is what the Hoopoe came back with.”

The nine-minute clip shows various facilities visible in the footage, including fuel tanks for aircraft, the headquarters of the 109th Squadron, an Iron Dome air defense platform, ammunition depots, the headquarters of the 157th Squadron, hangars, and the headquarters of the 105th Squadron.

The group also published a photo of the base commander’s office, allegedly revealing his personal details. Additional footage showed other warehouses and headquarters of the 101st and 160th Squadrons, as well as the technical area of the 193rd Squadron.

The video includes images taken on 9 July, featuring Apache helicopters, fuel storage, and Hercules aircraft.

The Israeli army stated, “The video released by Hezbollah was filmed by an unmanned aerial vehicle solely for reconnaissance purposes. The base’s operations were not affected.”

A Hezbollah source told Al-Jazeera that the footage is related to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s trip to Washington but did not provide further details.

Hezbollah ended the video footage with the phrase “[Israel is] weaker than a spider’s web,” a phrase which the Lebanese Resistance group’s Secretary-General, Hassan Nasrallah, repeated during his recent speech celebrating the liberation of southern Lebanon from Israeli occupation in May 2000.

US officials speaking to CNN in June expressed concerns that in the event of a full-scale war, Hezbollah would overwhelm Israel’s air defense systems with its “vast arsenal of missiles and drones.”