At the end of the 19th century, Jews constituted a plurality of the population of the Ottoman city of Salonica; this continued to be the case after 1912, when Greece seized the city and renamed it Thessaloniki. When World War I broke out, Thessaloniki played an important role as a harbor for Allied naval forces, and it endured a bombardment by Austrian planes in 1915. A single housewife roasting eggplants, however, would bring much greater destruction to the city, and especially its Jewish quarter, when an accidental fire in her kitchen got out of control. Ro Oranim writes:

On the evening of August 19, 1917, [after burning for 32 hours], the flames were finally brought under control, but the damage had been done. Forty-five percent of the population of Thessaloniki, approximately 70,000 people, were left homeless with nothing left to show for their lives . . . other than the smoking embers of the 9,500 homes that had found themselves in the destructive path of the insatiable blaze.

For the Jews of Thessaloniki, the majority population in the city, the devastating rampage of the fire proved catastrophic. Before the fire, the city was considered to be the “Jerusalem of the Balkans,” with a rich, thriving, and educated melting pot of Jews from different countries and cultures who came together to build a new life. Along with the local post offices, banks, and newspaper offices, the local Jewish schools, community centers, the Jewish college, and 32 synagogues were completely destroyed along with the entirety of the archives of the community which held records of a centuries-long history of Jewish presence in Thessaloniki. . . . [Due to the fire], many Jews were forced to emigrate and left their home for Athens, the United States, France, and the Land of Israel in the hopes of starting over. . . .

After previous fires in the city the government had simply allowed for people to rebuild, but after the great fire of 1917, the government decided to use the opportunity to . . . build a fully modernized, Hellenized city from the ashes. As part of the planning process, the government revoked the old rights and deeds to the land and the former owners were [merely] given the opportunity to bid on plots of land at auction. [Thus] the government seriously hindered the ability of the Jewish community to reestablish itself.

On the eve of World War II, Thessaloniki’s Jewish population had declined to 40 percent of the city’s total. Those who had emigrated following the fire, however, proved the most fortunate, as the Nazis would oversee the murder of some 90 percent of those who remained.

On Tuesday, a Hizballah drone attack injured three people in northern Israel. The next day, another attack, targeting an IDF base, injured eighteen people, six of them seriously, in Arab al-Amshe, also in the north. This second attack involved the simultaneous use of drones carrying explosives and guided antitank missiles. In both cases, the defensive systems that performed so successfully last weekend failed to stop the drones and missiles. Ron Ben-Yishai has a straightforward explanation as to why: the Lebanon-backed terrorist group is getting better at evading Israel defenses. He explains the three basis systems used to pilot these unmanned aircraft, and their practical effects:

These systems allow drones to act similarly to fighter jets, using “dead zones”—areas not visible to radar or other optical detection—to approach targets. They fly low initially, then ascend just before crashing and detonating on the target. The terrain of southern Lebanon is particularly conducive to such attacks.

But this requires skills that the terror group has honed over months of fighting against Israel. The latest attacks involved a large drone capable of carrying over 50 kg (110 lbs.) of explosives. The terrorists have likely analyzed Israel’s alert and interception systems, recognizing that shooting down their drones requires early detection to allow sufficient time for launching interceptors.

The IDF tries to detect any incoming drones on its radar, as it had done prior to the war. Despite Hizballah’s learning curve, the IDF’s technological edge offers an advantage. However, the military must recognize that any measure it takes is quickly observed and analyzed, and even the most effective defenses can be incomplete. The terrain near the Lebanon-Israel border continues to pose a challenge, necessitating technological solutions and significant financial investment.