Israeli soldiers are using drones to enforce expulsion orders as part of Tel Aviv’s project to ethnically cleanse the strip
‘Like a Video Game’: Israeli Troops Kill Gaza Civilians With Grenade-equipped Drones
The Cradle
(July 11, 2025) — The Israeli military has weaponized a fleet of Chinese-manufactured commercial drones to bomb Palestinian civilians – including children – in an effort to force them to leave their homes and prevent them from returning to areas from which they have been expelled, an investigation published on 11 July revealed.
According to seven Israeli soldiers speaking with +972 Magazine and Local Call, civilians were deliberately targeted “like a video game” so others would “learn” not to return.
Soldiers primarily used $3,000 EVO drones, which are produced by the Chinese company Autel and can be purchased on Amazon.
Primarily intended for photography, the drones were augmented to hold a grenade that can be dropped by a soldier operating the drone using a joystick.
“It’s like a video game. There’s a crosshair in the middle of the screen, and you see a video image,” a soldier, H., explained.
“You’re hundreds of meters away, [sometimes] even a kilometer or more. Then you play with the joystick, see the target, and drop [a grenade]. And it’s even kind of cool. Except this video game kills people,” H. added.
+972 and Local Call reviewed daily reports from a battalion commander tracking the attacks. All Palestinians killed were listed as “terrorists.” However, one soldier, S., testified that his battalion killed scores of unarmed civilians who were simply seeking to return to their homes.
“It was clear that they were trying to return to their homes – there’s no question,” he explained. “None of them were armed, and nothing was ever found near their bodies. We never fired warning shots. Not at any point.”
- said that the soldiers did not collect the corpses of the victims. Instead, they were eaten by stray dogs.
“You could see it on the drone footage,” he explained. “I couldn’t bring myself to watch a dog eating a body, but others around me watched it. The dogs have learned to run toward areas where there’s shooting or explosions – they understand it probably means there’s a body there.”
Israeli troops deliberately targeted children, S. explained further. “There was a boy who entered the [off-limits] zone. He didn’t do anything. [Other soldiers] claimed to have seen him standing and talking to people. That’s it – they dropped a grenade from a drone.”
In another case, soldiers tried to kill a child riding a bicycle, S. added.
A., an officer who operated near Khan Yunis this year, said that one goal of the attacks was to make sure civilians had left neighborhoods after Israel issued evacuation orders. He said that soldiers would use the drones to drop grenades on any civilians who remained.
“Whoever they spot, they kill,” A. testified. “If people are moving around there – it’s a threat.” Any civilian who remained in the area after evacuation orders “is either not innocent or will learn through blood [that they must leave].”
The $3,000 EVO drones produced by Autel can be used so frequently because they are much cheaper than drones produced specifically for military use.
Each of the Israeli military’s Elbit Hermes 450 drones, also known as “Zik,” costs around $2 million.
“From an infantry perspective, suddenly you can use way more firepower, much more easily,” said L., another soldier.
In July, Israeli military analyst Ron Ben-Yishai visited a military base in northern Gaza. He described soldiers operating “all kinds of drones: surveillance, suicide, and attack drones. The place resembles a miniature airport – drones take off and land nonstop.”
In May, after Ukraine began using Chinese commercial drones for military purposes, Beijing banned their sale to the country. However, China has not banned selling them to Israel.
+972 and Local Call stated that the Israeli army is seeking to forcibly displace Gaza’s two million residents to a camp on the ruins of the city of Rafah, on the Egyptian border.
This is part of the so-called “Trump Plan” to expel Palestinians from Gaza and allow Israel to rebuild it for Jewish settlers as the “Riviera of the Middle East.”
“In March, the army flew quadcopters above us that broadcast messages ordering us to evacuate,” said Reem, a 37-year-old resident of Shujaiyya in Gaza City. “We saw them drop explosives on tents to burn them. It terrified me, and I waited until nightfall to leave my home and evacuate,” she explained.
Israeli soldiers have also used the drones to attack starving Palestinians seeking food aid. Mahmoud, 37, told +972 and Local Call that when he went to an aid distribution center near Rafah, “a quadcopter dropped a bomb on a group of people. Dozens were injured, and we ran away.”
Palestinians themselves have no way of knowing if they have entered a kill zone.
“There’s an imaginary line, and anyone who crosses it dies,” S. explained. “You expect them to understand this in blood, because there’s no other way – no one marks that line anywhere.”
“You send a drone up 200 meters high, and you can see three to four kilometers in every direction,” said Y., another soldier who served in Rafah. “You patrol like that: you see someone approaching, the first one gets hit with a grenade, and after that, the word spreads. One or two more come, and they die. The rest understand.”
