How Israel's quadcopters traumatise, maim and kill Palestinians in Gaza

In the course of more than ten months, Israel unleashed an array of weaponry in its genocidal war on the Palestinians in the besieged coastal enclave, killing and wounding thousands. One of the most deadly weapons in Israel's arsenal is the quadcopter. 

A drone with four propellers, the quadcopter follows its targets in different spaces, including narrow alleys of streets, tents, and inside houses. The 1.6-metre Quadcopter is electronically controlled remotely. It can easily take off and move vertically and horizontally for military or civilian service. It weighs about ten kilograms only. 

Usually, the Israeli army deploys quadcopters for intelligence purposes to facilitate its mission on the ground. Nevertheless, the Israeli army have equipped these drones with explosive devices, transforming them into deadly suicide attacks.

Dozens of quadcopters have so far killed hundreds of Palestinian civilians by launching guided missiles. 

"Quadcaptors have killed about 1,000 Palestinians, including 350 women and 150 children, during the current genocidal war," the Palestinian health ministry in Gaza noted in a recent press statement. 

Increased dependency on drones

Since the beginning of its genocidal war on the Gaza Strip, the Israeli army escalated intentional killings and extrajudicial executions of Palestinian civilians, with the quadcopter being a key tool in that regard. 

The Israeli army spokesperson, Daniel Hagari, confirmed the use of small aerial devices to carry out dangerous missions, noting that the quadcopter has been an effective weapon.

"The quadcopters used have become substitutes for soldiers and carry out their missions, especially concerning attacking places to kill at any moment," Iyad al-Qarra, a Palestinian political analyst based in Gaza, told TNA. 

"The Israeli army uses quadcopters as lethal tools, because they can move easily between places due to their small size, which allows them to reach narrow targets, and they have also relied on them to evacuate areas and sometimes implement a curfew," he said. 

In a press statement, the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor said that it documented increasing killings committed by the Israeli army through direct fire and dropping explosive bombs from quadcopters as part of the ongoing genocide crime since 7 October. 

"The Israeli army uses quadcopters electronically remotely for multiple purposes, starting with surveillance and espionage, in addition to issuing displacement orders, terrorizing civilians by making disturbing sounds, and most dangerously, using them as a tool to kill and harm Palestinians," The Euro-Mediterranean added. 

Moreover, other health workers in Gaza have also testified that how these drones are unleashed by Israel in horrific ways. 

"We saw the quadcopters targeted children. We saw young men targeted with rifle shots to their thighs to try to require amputation of their legs," Nabeel Rana, a vascular surgeon in North Carolina who volunteered at the Al-Aqsa Hospital in Gaza for three weeks in June and July, said in a press conference held on the sidelines of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago on 20 August.

"There were quadcopters targeting men in their groins and genitals. They would come in with no other injuries and would lose their testicles. They're healthy young men, but they will never have kids," he added. 

Technological terror

Several Palestinians in Gaza described to The New Arab how Israeli quadcopters are often active during the night. They say that as soon as darkness falls, suddenly recorded voices of women and children calling for help can be heard. As soon as young men and other residents of the neighbourhood go out to help those in distress, these Israeli quadcopters begin firing at them. 

Kamal Abu Rahma, a Palestinian man from al-Nuseirat refugee camp in the centre of the war-torn Gaza Strip, was among dozens of victims of these quadcopters. 

He told TNA that he heard the voice of a child crying in pain and asking for help during the night, which forced him to leave his house to try and find the child and save him, but he found nothing. 

"Some of my neighbours also came and found nothing. We wondered what the sound was. Suddenly, we felt a device with red and green lights approaching us. Then, we heard the sounds of a drone's propellers, and then it started firing randomly at us," he recalled. 

The quadcopter killed three of Abu Rahma's neighbours and wounded his right leg, which had to be amputated. "We are just civilians in our homes, and [the drone] called to us so it can kill us just because we are Palestinians," he said. 

Ahmed Bashir, a Palestinian man based in Khan Younis, experienced a similar situation three months ago. 

"The Israeli army asked us to evacuate the Hamad Towers in the city to start a military operation in our area. I asked my wife to leave immediately, and I stayed at home trying to carry some essential items for us," the 39-year-old father of four remarked to TNA. 

"Suddenly, I saw a quadcopter plane entered my house through the window and started filming it from inside. At first, I stood without doing any act, but then I tried to escape from it. Before leaving, it fired bullets and bombs at me, wounding my two legs, which prevented me from moving," he added. 

Bashir bled for more than three hours before rescue crews were able to reach him and save his life. "The Israeli army, with its technological capabilities, knows very well that I am a civilian and have nothing to do with any military activity, but they kill Palestinians without exception," Bashir stressed.