Israel Used Drones To Kill Terrorists In Gaza

Israeli Army used Hermes 450 attack drones to kill terrorists in Gaza in 2014.

In an official unclassified document, the Israeli army said on its website that, it operated Hermes 450 drones and attacked 5,226 targets during the war in Gaza and acted against 32 tunnels, 14 of which were part of the Israeli territory, Haaretz reported Wednesday.

For instance, on July 8, 2014, the document describes, “Using an attack Zik (Hermes 450), the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) killed four terrorists who had penetrated the beach at Zikim [near Ashkelon].”

A presentation describing the inquiry into that incident, which leaked to a Palestinian website in 2014, states, “Zik closes circle with unit, destroys the unit. ”The army number of the unit operating the drones appears in the presentation, alongside aerial pictures of the incident. In another part, the presentation authors wrote “Zik kills one of the terrorists,” the news daily reported.

Another instance described in the document says that “Using a Zik, the army thwarted the penetration of 13 terrorists through a tunnel in southern Gaza.” That was on July 17, near Kibbutz Sufa, and led to Israeli ground forces entering Gaza that very night.

The army does not usually formally declare what it does with unmanned vehicles used for anything other than collecting intelligence. However, American and British intelligence hacked into Israeli jet and drone feeds in the so-called Anarchist campaign, which outed such use. Also, explaining the contract to lease Israeli Heron drones, German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen noted that these UAVs could be armed, which was important to protect soldiers.