Initial probe: Drone was tracked but dropped off radar, was assumed to have crashed

According to an initial investigation of the drone strike near Binyamina, Hezbollah launched two drones that entered Israeli airspace from the sea, The Times of Israel has learned. They were Mirsad drones, known in Iran as the Ababil-T. The model is Hezbollah’s main suicide drone.

According to the Alma Center, an Israeli research institute focused on security challenges in the north, the drone has “a 120-kilometer assault range, a top speed of 370 kilometers per hour, the capacity to carry up to 40 kilograms of explosives, and the ability to fly at altitudes of up to 3,000 meters.”

Both were tracked by Israeli radars, and one was shot down off the coast north of Haifa. Sirens sounded in the western Galilee area.

IAF planes and helicopters pursued the second, but it dropped off the radar and Israeli forces lost track of it, likely because it flew very close to the ground. No siren sounded because the assumption was that it had crashed or been intercepted once it disappeared.

The drone ended up striking near Binyamina, injuring almost 70 people.