Lebanese man goes on trial in Germany for supplying Hezbollah with drone parts

A Lebanese man went on trial Tuesday in Celle, Germany, where he is accused of being a member of the Hezbollah terror group and procuring drone components that were exported for use in attacks against Israel.

The defendant, identified under local privacy laws only as Fadel Z, supplied thousands of parts, some of which were used in two attacks on Israel, including a 2024 strike on a retirement home in the central Israel city of Herzliya, prosecutors say.

Due to his role in supplying parts used in the attack, prosecutors accused Fadel Z of aiding and abetting attempted murder. Charges filed against him in September also included membership in a terror organization and violating a European Union ban on supplying the drone parts.

Fadel Z was arrested in July 2024 as part of a wave of police action across Europe to bust a suspected multinational Hezbollah drone smuggling network.

The German Federal Prosecutor’s Office said in a statement at the time of his arrest that Fadel Z had been a member of Hezbollah for over ten years, first doing public relations for the terror group.

In 2022, he began working on the drone program, first from Barcelona in Spain, then moving to Germany in 2023.

Hezbollah “employs foreign operatives who covertly purchase components in Europe and export them to Lebanon,” prosecutors said.

Until his arrest, Fadel Z purchased materials and parts for drones worth some €1.4m ($1.62 million), according to prosecutors. They included over 2,000 gasoline and electric motors and over 600 propellers. Parts were purchased from companies in Europe, China, and the US.

Prosecutors said Hezbollah has had “a large-scale drone program for some time” and that by June 2024, it had built up an arsenal of over 10,000 drones.

Fadel Z allegedly used front companies, many registered in his own name or those of his contacts, to pay suppliers.

According to prosecutors, Fadel Z arranged for components to be sent to Lebanon by ship or air freight from Hamburg or Spain.

After October 7, 2023, when Palestinian terror group Hamas led a devastating invasion of southern Israel, triggering a war in the Gaza Strip, Hezbollah “systematically fired rockets and explosive-laden drones at both military and civilian targets in Israel.”

Prosecutors said in September that two engines bought by Fadel Z were used in drone attacks that Hezbollah carried out against Israel. One of those was an October 11, 2024, attack on a retirement home in Herzliya that houses some 200 residents. The attack, on the Jewish holy day of Yom Kippur, caused damage but no injuries.

The trial is expected to continue until August next year, the BBC reported.

Hezbollah drone attacks targeted civilian communities and military positions alike, forcing mass long-term evacuations from northern Israeli towns and prompting a protracted state of high alert across the region. Dozens of soldiers and civilians were killed in the attacks.

In April 2025, Le Figaro reported that a multinational Hezbollah smuggling network operating across Europe had been exposed and dismantled, with authorities intercepting large quantities of drone components intended for use in attacks against Israel.

The sophisticated operation reportedly spanned Spain, Germany, France, and the United Kingdom, and aimed to supply the Iran-backed Lebanese terror group with materials capable of producing hundreds — if not thousands — of explosive UAVs.

According to the report, authorities learned of the network in mid-2024, when Spain’s Civil Guard tracked suspicious purchases of drone components by Lebanese nationals operating through Spanish front companies. Those materials, which included electronic guidance systems, engines, propellers, and chemical compounds for drone assembly, were destined for Hezbollah and were intercepted before they could be shipped.

Last week, German prosecutors said police arrested an alleged member of a Hamas cell plotting attacks on Israeli or Jewish institutions.

The man, identified as Lebanon-born Borhan El-K, was arrested while entering Germany from the Czech Republic, the federal prosecutor’s office said. A further suspect was arrested a week earlier in London at the request of German authorities.

Hamas has denied any connection to the alleged plot.

AFP contributed to this report.