At a ceremony in the part of Jerusalem known as the City of David, a group of prominent Israelis announced the official reopening of an ancient road leading to the Second Temple, discovered in recent archaeological excavations and then restored. Daniel Eisenbud writes:

As rain and sleet poured down, the Sephardi chief rabbi Shlomo Amar, the culture and sport minister Miri Regev, and the mayor of Jerusalem Nir Barkat stood together several meters under the Givati parking lot in Silwan to light a large silver menorah at the end of the ancient road. . . .

Listening intently as they sat on makeshift wooden benches a few meters away with several members of Knesset were the three Israeli paratroopers immortalized in the iconic 1967 photograph of the liberation of the Western Wall. . . .

The approximately 50-meter roadway, built near the Herodian Pool of Siloam, where pilgrims once immersed themselves [in preparation for visiting the Temple], begins south of the City of David and ends at the foot of the Western Wall’s Robinson’s Arch.

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.