Hezbollah has released drone surveillance footage it says shows the ports of Haifa Hezbollah

Hezbollah released a nine-minute, 31-second video it said was drone footage collected from its surveillance aircraft over Israeli positions, including the sea and airport in the main northern city of Haifa.

The distribution of the footage was flagged by Lebanon's armed movement, including its Telegram channel, advising viewers of several channels to “watch and analyze” what it called “important scenes”, including cryptic messages that would show “Hupo brought back.” Hupo is a drone and the name of a bird seen as a messenger in Arabic mythology.

Hezbollah has sent surveillance and attack drones Israel Over the past eight months it has exchanged fire with the Israeli army in parallel with the Gaza war.

The decision to broadcast the footage, which featured images of residential and military sites nearby, including Haifa and port facilities, was aimed at an Israeli audience as much as a larger international audience.

The authenticity of the footage could not be independently confirmed and it is unclear when the footage was filmed. But Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said in November that it was sending surveillance drones to Haifa.

If verified as genuine, the footage could alert Israel's security agencies, suggesting a greater vulnerability to drone infiltration than previously acknowledged, not least with the inherent threat of being able to overfly Haifa. It is a major population center, home to 300,000.

The footage shows parts of a factory belonging to Rafael Defense – including the Iron Dome battery, rocket engine depot, David's slingshot facility and radar.

The IDF had no immediate comment on the broadcast footage.

The United States and France are working toward a negotiated settlement of hostilities along Lebanon's southern border.

The footage, if confirmed to be real, would underline the growing difficulty Israel has faced in countering Hezbollah's drone threat, including several incidents where incoming drones were not detected by Israeli air defense systems, including a recent attack on a group of Israeli soldiers. . which killed one.

Experts assess that Hezbollah is using a combination of tactics to avoid detection of its drones, including flying low and using multiple channels to avoid jamming technology.

While around 150 drones have been intercepted, while others have reached their targets, Israeli officials have revealed that they have begun spending millions of shekels to combat the drone threat.

Planned improvements to Israel's air defense system include upgrades to the Iron Dome system to better equip it to deal with slow-flying drones and the reintroduction of the retired conventional anti-aircraft weapon, the Vulcan system.

The release of the footage appears to coincide with a visit to Lebanon by US Ambassador Amos Hochstein after he met with senior Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

In Beirut, Hochstein called for an “urgent” reduction in cross-border firefights between Hezbollah and Israeli forces. Gaza war

“The conflict between Israel and Hezbollah … has been going on for a long time,” the presidential envoy said. “It is in everyone's interest to resolve this quickly and diplomatically – it is both achievable and urgent.”

Despite Hochstein's visit to the region, there was little evidence of a breakthrough in efforts to de-escalate tensions along the Israel-Lebanon border, with Israeli reports saying that Hochstein saw no prospect of significant movement while the fighting in Gaza continued.

After several days of relative calm between Israel and Hezbollah over the weekend, last week's barrage, which included the heaviest of the war, escalated hostilities again on Tuesday.

Lebanese state media said an Israeli drone struck a vehicle on a highway north of the coastal city of Tyre. It was not immediately clear who was in the car and how many were killed or injured.

In the past week, Hezbollah has fired hundreds of drones and rockets, including more than 200 in one day, and the Israeli military has hit Hezbollah targets.