Sabri Essid, a French national, recently appeared in an Islamic State (IS) video alongside his own stepson, who is shown murdering an alleged Palestinian Mossad agent. Essid’s stepbrother, Mohammed Merah, killed three children and a teacher at a Jewish school in Toulouse in 2012. And last year, Merah’s sister Souad left France along with her four children to join jihadists—including her husband—in Syria. John Rosenthal reports:

In recordings made public in November 2012, Souad Merah declares that she is proud of her brother Mohammed and thinks highly of Osama bin Laden. Denouncing the “injustices” committed by “the Jews and the Americans,” Souad praises Salafists—adherents of the radical Islamic current of which both IS and al-Qaeda form a part—for taking action while others merely talk. . . .

Souad’s words were secretly recorded by another of her brothers, Abdelghani. The anti-Islamist “black sheep” of the family, Abdelghani has said he made the recordings to dissociate himself from the other Merahs and expose the anti-Semitism in which Mohammed was “immersed” from childhood. His own relationship with a woman of Jewish origin (now his wife) was, he says, such a profound source of discord in the family that, during an argument about it in 2003, [another of his brothers] stabbed him seven times, nearly killing him. According to Abdelghani, guests at a memorial service held at his mother’s home a few days after Mohammed Merah’s death [at the hands of police] broke into ululations of joy and, rather than offering condolences, congratulated his mother on her son’s actions.

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.