did Hezbollah really succeed in “cloning” an Israeli missile to use it against the Jewish state?

The paramilitary wing of Hezbollah, based in Lebanon, allegedly recovered an Israeli Spike missile during the Lebanon War in 2006 and managed to “clone” this missile and reproduce it in series, according to the New York Times.

In the context of war in the Middle East, Hezbollah would have succeeded in “cloning” an advanced Israeli missile. Specifically, the New York Times, which interviewed Israeli and Western defense officials, as well as weapons experts, reported that Iran had successfully replicated this Israeli anti-tank missile.

Subsequently, Iran allegedly supplied these mass-produced clones to Hezbollah. Armed militia are currently reportedly using these Spike weapons against Israel. This original system called Spike includes a launcher and several missiles, and is believed to have been abandoned during the 2006 Lebanon War.

In order to “clone” this technology, Iran allegedly used reverse engineering to reproduce the missiles. This technique consists of dismantling the system in order to analyze and reproduce it. Iran has already reproduced American drones and missiles, recalled the New York Times. A point which goes in the direction of a possible “cloning” of an Israeli missile, even if an authentic confirmation seems unlikely.

The fact remains that several of these missile replicas were found by the Israeli army during its military operation launched in Lebanon a few months ago. This replica, called Almas, is much more technologically efficient than Hezbollah's other missiles.

Furthermore, Israeli intelligence services have assured that these replicas have been used since well before the recent events in the Middle East. They were spotted during the Syrian civil war in 2011.