An investigation by Israeli publications 972 Magazine and Local Call has revealed that Israeli soldiers are using commercial drones to drop grenades on Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip.
The drones, mostly Evo drones produced by the Chinese company Autel, are operated manually by soldiers on the ground and are used to bomb civilians, including children, to force them out of their homes or prevent them from returning to areas where Palestinians have been expelled.
According to the investigation, which interviewed seven soldiers and officers, the drones are equipped with a military-issued attachment known as an “iron ball” that allows a hand grenade to be affixed to the drone and dropped with the push of a button to detonate on the ground.
An Israeli soldier who served in the Rafah area this year and was identified in the report only as S said that the drone attacks were used to empty Palestinian neighborhoods and to teach Palestinians “through blood” not to return.
The soldier testified that the Israeli army deliberately targeted children, including a boy who entered an off-limits zone and was killed by a drone-dropped grenade. “None of them were armed, and nothing was ever found near their bodies. We never fired warning shots. Not at any point,” S said. Israeli soldiers also admitted to not allowing bodies to be collected, sometimes letting stray dogs eat them as they watched and filmed from afar.
Meron Rapoport, editor and writer at Local Call, explained that the commercial drones are advantageous because they are much cheaper than military-grade ones. “It’s very cheap, it’s very easy to use. It’s decentralised in a way, the use of these drones, because it’s a platoon that can use them. It does not need to require the authorisation from central command,”
The drone attacks are part of Israel’s war on Gaza, which has killed at least 58,026 Palestinians and wounded 138,520 since it began in October 2023, according to Gaza’s Ministry of Health. Al Jazeera’s Nour Odeh said the weaponisation of civilian drones to kill and dispossess Palestinians is the latest revelation of the cruelties normalised in Gaza and further evidence of how Israel is trying to forcibly transfer the population to the south of the Strip.
The report has sparked criticism of Israel’s plan to set up internment camps in southern Gaza, with former Israeli Prime Ministers Yair Lapid and Ehud Olmert saying it would amount to a “concentration camp” if Palestinians there are not allowed to leave.