In 2014, in response to American complaints about its policy of paying salaries to terrorists, the Palestinian Authority (PA) stopped such payments and instead began funneling money to the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO)—also headed by Mahmoud Abbas—which then distributed it to the terrorists. With the failure of other efforts to stop this practice, the Israeli defense minister, Avigdor Liberman, recently declared the Palestinian National Fund, which is the PLO’s treasury, a terrorist organization. Eylon Aslan-Levy explains:

[Israel’s] ability to pressure the PA . . . is constrained: making Israel’s civil policy in the West Bank more restrictive would harm economic growth, foment resentment, and generate international concern and bad headlines. Additionally, Israel fears that weakening the Palestinian Authority would serve only to boost the popularity of Hamas as an alternative government, so it is reluctant to expose it to public criticism. . . .

[Liberman’s] decision to designate the Palestinian National Fund a terrorist organization . . . puts the PLO on notice. The defense minister may [legally] order the confiscation of a terror entity’s assets. He is not required to, but he can. A defense-ministry statement says that “necessary steps will be taken . . . to seize and forfeit” the Palestinian National Fund’s assets, but there is a vast range of possible enforcement actions that Israel could take. How far Israel goes is now up to Liberman.

[Confiscation] could even take the form of raids on banks and financial institutions in areas under PA control, as Israel has done in the past. Liberman’s announcement reminds Palestinian leaders that their powers of patronage based on controlling this money remain dependent on Israeli policy. It signals that Israel is prepared to take punitive action against the Palestinian government if it provokes Israel.

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.