By Quds News Network
In the early hours of April 17, four children were killed in a drone strike in central Gaza. Their burned and shredded bodies arrived at Shuhada’a Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah. According to eyewitnesses, they had been playing near tents set up for displaced families when an Israeli drone hovered overhead. Moments later, it exploded.
These aren’t ordinary drones. They’re designed to kill, not scout or surveil, but to identify human gatherings and detonate mid-air. These are suicide drones, or what Israel calls “loitering munitions.” Their use in Gaza marks a chilling evolution in the occupation’s warfare: impersonal, cost-effective, and lethal with minimal accountability.
Rotem L: A Weapon Built for Urban Mass Killings
In 2018, Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) tested its “Rotem L” suicide drone in southern occupied Palestine. Built for dense urban environments like Gaza, this drone was developed specifically to target gatherings of people. It is small, fast, and deadly—designed to be operated by a single soldier. The entire system can be deployed in under a minute.
Carrying a warhead of 6.5 kilograms, the Rotem L drone flies silently for up to 45 minutes, seeking its target. Once locked, it crashes directly into human beings. It’s a flying bomb with AI-powered guidance and minimal oversight. It can be “recalled” or “re-routed,” giving Israeli operators plausible deniability when children are killed, yet often, it is not.
IAI didn’t stop with Rotem L. It also developed Harop—a kamikaze drone that blends the precision of a missile with the stealth of a drone—and the Green Dragon, a tactical loitering munition meant for small infantry units. These systems boast silent motors, long flight times, and precise targeting capabilities. But in Gaza, “precision” often translates into “plausible deniability” for war crimes.
A Drone for Every Soldier, A Death for Every Tent
What makes suicide drones especially dangerous is their convenience. They remove the need for pilots. Any soldier, with a few hours of training, can launch, steer, and kill. No chain of command, no delay, no cockpit hesitation. In Gaza, that translates to spontaneous attacks on gatherings, including refugee camps, aid queues, and family tents.
Israel claims its drones can distinguish faces. If that were true, then the decision to strike gatherings of displaced civilians becomes even more sinister. These drones are not “mistaken.” They are deliberate. Their victims are not “collateral damage.” They are targeted.
Since October 2023, suicide drones have increasingly buzzed over Gaza’s skies. Sometimes they watch, sometimes they kill. Their constant presence creates psychological terror. Fighters and civilians alike know they can turn deadly in an instant. No warning. No escape.
A War Crime Disguised as Innovation
International humanitarian law prohibits attacks that fail to distinguish between civilians and combatants. Suicide drones, by their very design, challenge this legal principle. They rely on sensors and algorithms to decide when to strike. But no sensor can measure innocence. No AI can differentiate between a child and a fighter when both are huddled under plastic sheets.
Legal scholars warn of growing accountability gaps: suicide drone strikes often occur without public oversight, clear chain of command, or external review. Civilian deaths are brushed off as “technical errors.” Investigations are rare, and when they do occur, they are internal and classified.
Israel’s deployment of suicide drones over displacement camps highlights how technology is being weaponized to obscure war crimes. With no cockpit footage to leak, no pilot testimony, and no accountability trail, drone warfare offers Israel a way to kill anonymously—and repeatedly.
Cheap, Lethal, and Exportable
Another reason for Israel’s increasing use of suicide drones is economic. Unlike jets and missiles that require imported components, drones like Rotem L are made in-house. They’re cheap to produce and can be launched in large numbers. Some drones can even be carried in a backpack, allowing entire infantry squads to field their own airstrikes.
International arms watchdogs have already criticized Israel’s drone exports. Several countries have canceled or reconsidered arms deals after seeing how these drones are used in Gaza. But instead of curbing production, Israel has doubled down, framing the use of suicide drones as “precision warfare.”
The results, however, speak for themselves: mass death, destroyed families, and a generation of Gazan children growing up in the shadow of buzzing machines that rain death without warning.
Drones Don’t “Miss”—They Are Directed to Kill
Israel’s propaganda machine insists that its drone strikes are surgical. But the images from Gaza contradict this. Charred children. Shredded tents. Burned family members who were simply seeking shelter.
The claim of “precision” is a smokescreen. In reality, suicide drones are part of a broader strategy to erode Gaza’s social fabric—to make even moments of rest or play a potential death sentence. By normalizing this new method of warfare, Israel is writing a new chapter in the playbook of modern war crimes.
20 April 2025
Source: countercurrents.org