On August 15, Israeli police arrested Raed Salah, the head of the Northern Branch of the Islamic Movement, which is the largest Islamist organization operating within the pre-1967 borders. Salah played a significant role in inciting the most recent violence on the Temple Mount, as Reuven Berko explains:

[Salah] controls an enormous funding empire that pays mercenaries (the men of the Murabitun and the women of the Muribitat) to riot on the Temple Mount, in Jaffa, and at other sites depending on their rate and his orders.

The massive amounts of cash being pumped into the Islamic Movement, as well as its twin sister Hamas, come from global Islamic charities and, indirectly, from Turkey and Qatar. The Northern Branch is an exact copy of its fellow terrorist organizations, all of which have roots in the global Muslim Brotherhood movement: al-Qaeda, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Islamic State, and [so forth]. . . .

[Israeli] discussion about Salah’s activity as an inciter and a motivator of terrorist acts is reminiscent of the debates among . . . researchers . . . when Hamas was in its infancy. Many made the mistake of thinking that the ideology, which focused on “talk,” was separate from the actions, which focused on killing. Even today, the West is incapable of comprehending that dawa (proselytizing) is not ideological propaganda, study of the Quran and the hadith, or religious and historical enrichment as the murderous Islamic Movement claims, but rather a system of recruitment and motivation that uses “legitimate” Islamic messages to drive the Islamist terrorist machine.

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.