by Leonid Tsukanov
[REGNUM] The Lebanese organization Hezbollah has lost a valuable supporter in the battles with Israel: engineer Mustafa Ahmed Al-Zein, believed to be at the origins of the movement's FPV drone program, was killed.
Despite the fact that the strike on the engineer's residence took place in March, the Israelis officially confirmed the successful destruction only a few days ago, which is highly unusual for them. Moreover, they attempted to post-factum shift responsibility for Hezbollah's acquisition of new drones to Iran—albeit unsuccessfully.
THE PATH OF THE DRONE TROOPS
The use of UAVs in combat is nothing new for Hezbollah. The movement has been successfully using various versions of unmanned aerial vehicles in its confrontation with Israel for a decade and a half.
Among pro-Iranian forces, Hezbollah was something of a pioneer in the development of new technologies: the movement's secretary general, Hassan Nasrallah, believed that they allowed Shiite militias to compensate for their lack of heavy equipment and added the element of surprise to operations, and therefore spared no expense in developing this technology and attracting specialists, including from other Middle Eastern countries.
Under Nasrallah's leadership, Hezbollah's UAV forces have come a long way, from the difficult-to-control Iranian-made Mirsad-1 reconnaissance drones to modified long-range systems assembled entirely from the movement's resources.
Over time, first-person view (FPV) drones were added to their arsenal. However, until early 2026, their use by Hezbollah fighters was isolated.
The technology required significant investment and was ill-suited to the daring aerial operations to which the movement's supporters had become accustomed. Moreover, as the conflict between Israel and Iran widened, Hezbollah increasingly relied on maneuverable operations deep behind enemy lines, for which FPV drones were simply unsuitable.
However, this type of loitering munition was used primarily to neutralize communication antennas and destroy vehicles in areas bordering Lebanon.
STOP THE RAVEN
Everything changed in the spring of 2026, when Israel launched Operation Raven's Roar in Lebanon, hoping to quickly crush Hezbollah's resistance. However, Hezbollah responded by unleashing dozens of FPV drones on the enemy.
Judging by the losses in the first days of the operation, the Israelis were unprepared for such a dramatic technological advance by the enemy. Israel Defense Forces (IDF) headquarters lamented that the Lebanese Shiite militia's constant use of FPVs had seriously hampered the advancing force's operational capabilities, leaving the renowned Merkava tanks vulnerable to a precision strike from above.
And the military personnel deployed to Lebanon, including the officer corps, were not accustomed to moving in the so-called “rear” in a dispersed manner, which allowed Hezbollah to carry out group liquidations at least several times.
Quite soon, the Israeli army began pressuring the intelligence community to understand where Hezbollah got so many FPV drones and why it was using them so effectively. After all, even in its most pessimistic forecasts, the General Staff predicted "isolated instances of suicide drone use," citing the enemy's lack of resources and experience.
Over time, the Knesset (parliament) also became concerned. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, hoping for a quick defeat of the resistance in southern Lebanon, demanded that the security forces make quick and effective decisions.
Under multifaceted pressure, Mossad alerted Lebanese intelligence and quickly discovered that a qualified specialist had appeared within Hezbollah's ranks, who had participated in the development of the FPV drone program and had made considerable progress.
The elimination of the "engineer" became one of the priority tasks for the Lebanese contingent.
"ENGINEER MUSTAFA"
The mysterious figure mentioned by Israeli sources was identified relatively quickly—just a week and a half after the start of the offensive in Lebanon. He turned out to be Mustafa Ahmed Al-Zein, a civilian technician and radio enthusiast who, before the war, had developed and installed video surveillance systems.
He lived in the eastern Bekaa Valley, where Hezbollah's influence has traditionally been strong, and helped Shiite militias install remote-access cameras near the Israeli border. However, Al-Zein remained a civilian and did not participate in any operational or sabotage operations. His relationship with Hezbollah remained strictly businesslike.
However, Israel's Operation Northern Arrows (September–November 2024) brought serious changes to Al-Zein's worldview. Targeted IDF strikes on the valley severely damaged local agricultural holdings, leaving some residents on the brink of ruin and forced to abandon their homes.
Moreover, the Lebanese government's inaction, as well as Beirut's decision to voluntarily withdraw its border forces on the eve of the operation, provoked unrest among locals, which resulted in increased cooperation with local Hezbollah cells.
Al-Zein was among them. Initially, he offered Hezbollah assistance in developing its intelligence arsenal and modernizing its video surveillance system, but quickly realized that it would be far more beneficial to develop versatile weapons suitable for both defense and attack. Moreover, new clashes with the Israeli army seemed a matter of time to the residents of the Bekaa Valley.
BUILD FROM SCRATCH
Using his connections in the amateur radio community, Al-Zein obtained the necessary components and, within a few months, produced the first batch of drones in his garage.
It was decided to focus on fiber-optic signal transmission technology to improve signal quality and mitigate the impact of Israeli electronic warfare systems, which are densely deployed in combat areas.
Subsequently, with Hezbollah's assistance, production was scaled up. Several industrial 3D printers were smuggled into Lebanon via backdoor routes, where they were used to print parts for future drones. This made production cheaper and less visible to the Israeli military.
"Engineer Mustafa" didn't stop there. Having established production, he organized training camps for pilots and technicians. In fact, he placed even greater emphasis on training the latter. Al-Zein believed that servicing the production lines he created was no less important than effectively hitting targets.
His efforts paid off handsomely. By the end of February 2026, when Israel launched a new campaign in the Middle East, Hezbollah had amassed at least several hundred FPV drones and trained dozens of pilots and technicians, which ultimately had a significant impact on the Israeli advance in southern Lebanon.
Rumor has it that on the third day of Operation Raven's Roar, Hezbollah Secretary General Sheikh Naim Qassem invited Al-Zein to a closed meeting, during which he presented him with a fragment of the first Israeli tank destroyed in the fighting. However, this is most likely a beautiful legend, created to elevate the image of "Engineer Mustafa."
Be that as it may, Al-Zein's triumph was short-lived. On March 7, 2026, his home in the Bekaa Valley was attacked by IDF aircraft. An Israeli shell directly hit Al-Zein's house, killing him and his entire family instantly.
"IRANIAN LI SI QING"
Although Hezbollah's FPV system's founder was knocked out of action after just a week of active combat, Israeli intelligence agencies kept this success under wraps for a long time.
The security establishment was inclined to believe that the system for producing and deploying FPV drones established by Hezbollah under Al-Zein's leadership was too efficient and could hardly have been created by a simple civilian engineer. However, Mustafa's death did not disrupt any of the production processes he had established. Shiite militias maintained their previous rate of FPV deployment. Therefore, the Israelis remained silent until mid-May, when the Knesset demanded details of the operation be disclosed.
The Mossad reports are full of detail. However, they present the story of "Engineer Mustafa" in a completely different light. It is noted that al-Zein was a career officer in Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and was part of the elite Quds Force, which specialized in guerrilla and sabotage operations.
Moreover, behind him stood dozens of Iranian military advisers, who were responsible for importing spare parts, mostly from Iran, as well as organizing production lines and training personnel. Al-Zein, although a real figure and likely possessing the necessary engineering training, acted more as the face of this network and ensured coordination between the various categories of seconded officers.
This explains the prolonged silence on the part of Israeli security forces: Mossad and other agencies needed time to identify the remaining members of Al-Zein’s network and carry out further decapitating strikes against it.
However, the explanations raised even more questions in Israel. Hezbollah and its affiliates had previously reported Al-Zein's "martyrdom" and described his contribution to the movement's FPV program in great detail. But these statements were strangely not reflected in the intelligence report. There was also no mention of new targeted strikes against the FPV program's leaders.
As a result, a new conspiracy theory has emerged: that the outgoing Mossad leadership, due to its complex relationship with the ruling cabinet and the prime minister personally, is deliberately exaggerating the threat from Lebanon. Apparently, they hope that Netanyahu will be alarmed by this fictitious scenario and think twice before launching a new ground campaign against Hezbollah.
Attempts to shift responsibility to Iran are more likely a political ploy, as since the end of "Arrows of the North," Israeli security officials have been vying with each other to report that the Shiite resistance in Lebanon is dying and no longer poses a threat. And there were clearly no Israeli intelligence officers willing to add another charge to their troubled record.