A Hezbollah drone downed by the Israeli military had a memory card with clear pictures of operatives belonging to one of the Lebanese terror group’s elite units.

The drone that was shot down by the IDF on Wednesday after it infiltrated Israeli airspace had images of its operators, belonging to the elite Radwan unit that uses unmanned aerial vehicles to gather intelligence on Israeli troops.

The pictures were likely taken by mistake by the UAV, but the pictures on the memory card revealed their faces, vehicles, complete with their license plates, as well as the operatives flying another drone that had also been downed a few months ago by the IDF.

The group was said to have 200 Iranian-made UAVs in 2013 and with the help from the Islamic Republic, it has since significantly increased its fleet that is set to be used for kamikaze attacks on strategic national assets in Israel as well as reconnaissance against IDF troops and bases.

Over the past year, Hezbollah violated Israeli airspace by sending 74 drones into Israel, a decrease from the 94 drones in 2020, but still an increase from 54 UAVs flown over the border in 2019.

On Wednesday after the drone was intercepted, the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit said on Twitter that “the IDF will continue to operate against any attempt by terrorists to violate Israeli sovereignty.”

Beirut regularly complains about Israeli surveillance drones invading its airspace, but the IDF maintains that such operations are necessary to track Hezbollah’s hostile activities.

Troops from the Combat Intelligence Collection Corps’ 869th “Shachaf” unit fly small, off-the-shelf civilian DJI drones and others that are used for reconnaissance missions.  Costing some several thousand NIS each, these once expensive tools are now extremely affordable for the military which has thousands of drones now operating along its borders.

While drones crash in enemy territory, the IDF says that there is no risk of secret technology or classified intelligence being revealed.

Israel and Lebanon are officially still at war and though the border with Lebanon is relatively quiet, there have been six instances of rocket fire since May.