Israel Is Using Suicide Drones to Target Displaced Palestinian Families Sheltering in Tents
Israel has deployed SkyStriker drones manufactured by Elbit Systems in several attacks in Gaza over the past week, killing at least 30 Palestinians sheltering in tents, including 14 children
Story by Sharif Abdel Kouddous, Mohnad Qeshta & Hamza Salha
MAWASI KHAN YOUNIS & JABALIYA—The Israeli military is using so-called suicide drones—highly precise attack drones—in strikes on displacement camps in Gaza that have killed at least 30 Palestinians, including 14 children, according to photos, videos, and eyewitness testimony obtained by Drop Site News.
In at least five separate strikes over the past week, including one in Jabaliya refugee camp, one in Beit Lahia, and three on families sheltering in Mawasi Khan Younis, Israel deployed attack drones called SkyStrikers, which are manufactured by Elbit Systems, the largest private defense contractor in Israel. Mawasi Khan Younis is designated as a “humanitarian zone” that the Israeli military has ordered Palestinians in Gaza to displace to yet has nevertheless repeatedly bombed. Photos and video of the drones’ remnants were reviewed and identified by Trevor Ball, a munitions researcher and a former U.S. army explosive ordnance disposal specialist.
“One-way attack drones are effectively missiles, and under most technical definitions they are considered missiles,” Ball said. “Effects-wise, these are pretty similar to the bombs and missiles they were using to strike tents and schools before. The biggest difference is these are loitering munitions, where they can circle a target for a period of time before engaging.”
Loitering munitions—also referred to as suicide drones or kamikaze drones—are outfitted with warheads and are designed to hover and locate a target before crashing into it at high speed.
According to promotional material from Elbit Systems, the SkyStriker “is a fully autonomous loitering munitions (LM) that can locate, acquire and strike operator designated targets with a 5 or 10 Kg warhead installed inside the fuselage, enabling high-precision performance.” The SkyStriker is powered by an electric engine that “offers a low acoustic signature, allowing covert operations at low altitude.” The Israeli military recently released a separate video showing suicide drones striking targets in Gaza.
Elbit, which first unveiled the SkyStriker in 2017, highlights the precision capabilities of the drone to “strike targets with pinpoint accuracy.” The company also points to the relatively low cost of “loitering munitions” for their ability to “carry out precision attacks without the high costs associated with expensive ammunition like guided missiles and rockets.” A promotional video by the company also showcases the SkyStriker’s capabilities, including hitting the exact center of relatively small targets.
Under a section titled “Minimizing Collateral Damage,” Elbit states, “The SkyStriker also has the rare ability to abort missions if necessary. If the situation on the target seems to be changed – such as the sudden appearance of non-involved civilians – the operator can command the munition to return to loitering mode before hitting the target, ready to re-engage when conditions are right.”
“I'm not sure why we are seeing them now,” Ball said about their use in Gaza. “They could be wanting to test them in a ‘real world’ environment, or it could be a change in how they are conducting strikes. It might be more efficient now for them to use these drones compared to other platforms (Hermes/Apache/Jet), especially with the smaller geographic areas people in Gaza are allowed by the IDF to occupy.”
Elbit Systems supplies hundreds of products to the Israeli military, including munitions, drones, guided rocket systems, reconnaissance capabilities and other systems. Israel’s war on Gaza has boosted its earnings, with the company last month reporting stronger quarterly profits, due in part to higher revenues from the war, and expecting continued growth in 2025 amid a spike in global defense spending.
The Israeli military did not respond to any specific questions submitted by Drop Site about the attacks.
April 17: Mawasi Khan Younis
On April 17, a SkyStriker drone smashed into a tent in Mawasi Khan Younis, near Asdaa—once an amusement park in Gaza—killing at least ten members of the Abu al-Rous family, including three women and five children. Footage from the site of the attacks shows the charred remains of a makeshift shelter, built out of corrugated metal and tarp in an open area by the side of a road. The parts of the SkyStriker were clearly visible at the site of the attack.
April 19: Mawasi Khan Younis
Two days later, on April 19, five people were killed in an attack by a SkyStriker drone on a tent housing displaced Palestinians near a British field hospital in Mawasi Khan Younis. Those killed included three members of the Abu al-Nida family, two of them women. Clothes, mattresses, and other household goods are visible in the wreckage near the remnants of the drone.
“This is the drone that hit us. There was a lot of fire,” Ziad al-Maghrabi, a neighbor who lives in an adjacent tent, told Drop Site, as he pointed to the remains of the SkyStriker. “What did we do so that they attack displaced people? They hit us in our tents with a plane like this—hitting people in dilapidated, worn out tents? People who are thirsty and hungry and they hit us with these planes? What’s the reason?”
April 21: Mawasi Khan Younis
On April 21, a SkyStriker drone attack on a tent opposite the Karza cafe in Mawasi Khan Younis killed a married couple, Hassan Abu Zeid and Israa al-Maghari. Footage and photographs of the aftermath show a destroyed tent alongside ripped mattresses and other belongings strewn on the ground. Again, the wreckage of the drone is clearly visible.
April 17: Beit Lahia
The Israeli military has also used SkyStriker drones in northern Gaza over the past week.
On April 17, a SkyStriker drone struck a tent in Beit Lahia, the northernmost town in Gaza, killing six members of the al-Atal family—a father, mother and their four children. The drone remnants are clearly visible.
April 17: Jabaliya refugee camp
In the early hours of April 17, an attack on a tent in eastern Jabaliya refugee camp killed seven members of the Asaliyah family—a married couple and their five children.
“At around 1:20 a.m., there was a sound like an earthquake in the neighborhood,” a relative of the victims, 27-year-old Ibrahim Asaliyah, told Drop Site. “We woke up in a panic and went to the tent and found the fire raging. We went in and found them in their beds with body parts scattered everywhere. We started gathering their body parts in nylon bags. ”
Photos from the site also show the wreckage of the tent and the remnants of the SkyStriker drone.
“I was a witness to the entire event. We picked up the suicide drone after it exploded—what appeared to be its wings. It was something terrifying,” Asaliyah said.
Another relative, 17-year-old Tawfiq Asaliyah, also woke up to the sound of the explosion and ran to the scene. “The suicide drone hit my cousin’s tent—we heard the explosion,” he said. “We knew they were martyred, they were asleep when it happened.”
“These missiles, they call them smart bombs or smart suicide drones,” Ibrahim Asaliyah said. “But what are these children guilty of? In the end, this is a war of ethnic cleansing.”
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This is fucking insane.
This is about arms manufacturers requiring real-world data so that can increase sales. US taxpayers are now underwriting Israel weapon sales.