Tijdens
de protesten i.h.k.v. The Great Return March in de Gazastrook, maar
ook bij ‘opstootjes’ op de West Bank, maakt Israël, naast het neerschieten van ongewapende Palestijnen, ook gebruik van 3
verschillende soorten drones die traangasgranaten boven mensenmassa’s afwerpen……
Traangas is een chemisch wapen >> verboden in oorlogen door de conventie van Genève….
Geen
noodzaak om te stellen dat gebruik van traangas op deze manier uiterst gevaarlijk is, niet alleen
vanwege de hoge concentraties traangas, maar ook vanwege het
neerkomen van deze granaten in mensenmassa’s……… (overigens, het gebruik van traangas is altijd gevaarlijk, met drones wordt dit gevaar nog verder vergroot….)
Daarnaast
is het maar de vraag of Israël aan het gebruikte traangas andere
stoffen hebben toegevoegd, immers Israël is een van de weinige
landen die nog steeds chemische wapens ontwikkelt……
Afgelopen maandag overleed een baby van 8 maanden na een aanval met traangas in de Gazastrook aan de grens met Israël, daarnaast zouden er bewijzen zijn dat meerdere Palestijnse mensen zijn overleden na aanvallen met traangas door het Israëlische leger………
Israël verkoopt haar drones ook aan andere landen, zoals Duitsland, Birma (daar worden ze gebruikt gebruikt in de strijd tegen de Rohingya) en het agressieve Zuid-Soedan, uiteraard wordt ook de truc met traangas (of een nog gevaarlijker gas) desgevraagd meegeleverd…….
Lees
het volgende verontrustende relaas van Daniel Hilton, eerder
geplaatst op Middle East Eye (MEE):
Drones
over Gaza: How Israel tested its latest technology on protesters
Tear
gas grenades dropped from above caused injuries, panic and death
during this week’s Gaza and West Bank’s protests
Tear
gas descends on Palestinian protesters from above in the Gaza Strip
(AFP)
Wednesday
16 May 2018 14:51 UTC
Last
update:
Wednesday
16 May 2018 17:47 UTC
The
mismatch between Palestinian protesters and Israeli forces has often
been likened to David and Goliath. Now, Goliath doesn’t even need
to enter the field of combat.
In
a new innovation, small drones have been used by Israel’s military
to drop tear gas on Palestinian protests along the Gaza Strip’s
border with Israel and in the occupied West Bank.
First
seen in early March, when Lebanon’s
Al-Mayadeen TV filmed
a group of protesters in Gaza as they were targeted by one, the
gas-carrying drones were used heavily in protests in the coastal
enclave and the occupied West Bank on Monday and Tuesday.
There
appear to be three types of drones being used to disperse the gas.
The
first, developed by Israeli company ISPRA and known as the “Cyclone
Riot Control Drone System”, is a small drone with rotas that
carries a box containing nine light aluminium cartridges which burn
up after they are released.
However,
two other models appear to have been used, which experts told MEE
have never been seen before.
One
is a drone that releases gas directly from the craft, like an
aerosol, dispersing a cloud on those below.
The
other, a potentially far more dangerous device, is a helicopter-style
drone which carries rubber bursting grenades with metal tops that
disperse gas as they fall.
(onderstaande video is niet behorend bij het twitterbericht daaronder, die ik niet weet over te nemen, wel is praktisch hetzelfde te zien)
VIDEO: Israel has developed drones that deploy tear gas. In mid-March Israeli military officials said they had experimented with them in Gaza. They now seem operational.
As
the Great March of Return protests came to a crescendo earlier this
week, the third type of drone became by far the most regularly used
of the three, according to experts spoken to by MEE.
An
Israeli drone drops tear gas canisters during clashes with
Palestinian protesters near the border east of Gaza City on May 15,
2018. (AFP)
This
drone does not appear to be a sophisticated device.
“It’s
more sophisticated [than a commercial drone] – it’s not something
that you would buy cheaply on Amazon, but I think it’s not far from
it,” Itay Mack, an Israeli human rights lawyer and activist who
tracks Israel’s military exports, told MEE.
The
drone appears to be fitted with a spring-loaded rack, which opens to
drop a number of tear gas grenades.
“I
think the pins are manually pulled from the grenades when they are
secured in the rack before takeoff,” James Bevan, executive
director of Conflict Armament Research, told MEE.
The
rack is then released once the drone is positioned over the area
where the controller wishes to disperse the gas.
“It
may be something as simple as a retracting pin attached to a
servomotor, which is wired into the drone’s circuits,” Bevan says.
“This is what Islamic State [IS] used in Iraq and Syria.”
According
to Bevan, IS is the only group for which there is physical evidence
of these small, helicopter-type drones’ use in combat situations,
mostly seen in Iraq’s Mosul and Syria’s Tal Afar.
“We
see drone use in other theatres, including by non-state groups, but
these have been military fixed-wing drones,” he said.
New
range, new danger
Monday’s
demonstrations in Gaza coincided with the ceremony marking the
official opening of the United States’ new embassy in Jerusalem
while Tuesday’s protests marked 70 years since the Palestinian Nakba
– or Catastrophe – when 750,000 Palestinians were forced from their
homes in historic Palestine in 1948.
Over
the two days, 62 Palestinians were killed by live fire or tear gas
inhalation, as Israeli forces attempted to quell the protests.
At
least 980 Palestinians were wounded by tear gas dropped on the
protests on Monday, Gaza’s health ministry said, including many
minors.
The
drones have given the Israeli forces new range. Previously, gas
canisters had only been fired into the Gaza Strip from vehicles on
the Israeli side of the divide.
The
large fence that separates the besieged enclave from Israel restricts
the military’s ability to fire gas across the border, unlike in the
West Bank where soldiers often fire the canisters from specially
equipped rifles.
Israeli
forces rarely make ground incursions into the Gaza Strip, which they
pulled out of in 2005, while they maintain a significant presence the
occupied West Bank.
This
new range has allowed the Israelis to target areas far from the
flashpoint border area, places more likely to be populated by
families, minors and the elderly.
Gas
a threat to the vulnerable
“The
problem with gas grenades is they are especially dangerous to small
children and elderly people,” Mack said.
The
gas can be fatal in two ways: suffocation and overdosing on the
chemicals used.
The
deaths of several Palestinians in the West Bank has been linked to
tear gas inhalation in recent years. In 2015 an eight-month-old
baby in
the village of Beit Fajjar died after soldiers fired tear gas into
his home
And
in 2014, Palestinian minister Ziad
Abu Ein died
from complications related to tear gas inhalation after attending a
protest near the village of Turmusaya.
A
report last year described the Aida refugee camp in the southern West
Bank as the “community most exposed to tear gas in the world”.
Reports
emerged on Tuesday that an eight-month-old baby, Leila al-Ghandour,
was also killed by tear gas in the Gaza Strip. She is said to have
been exposed to the gas while at a protest site far from the Israeli
separation fence, though at the time of publication this could not be
independently verified by MEE.
Indiscriminate
projectiles
Though
made of rubber, the gas grenades dropped from the drones are weighty
and have a metal top.
The
Israeli military has regulations banning firing such projectiles
directly at people. Gas canisters fired from specially fitted rifles
are particularly dangerous at short range.
The
long-range 40mm grenade launchers used by Israel are also considered
dangerous because they can be fired with only limited accuracy.
Palestinians
run to take cover as an Israeli drone fires tear gas grenades east of
Gaza City during clashes between Palestinians and Israeli forces, on
May 15, 2018. (AFP)
A
spokesman from Omega
Research Foundation (ORF Ltd), which researches the manufacture, trade in and use of, military,
security and police technologies, told MEE that drones can be used to
increase accuracy when dispersing tear gas.
“On
a purely technical level, the drones can hover at a safe height to
drop the grenades and target individuals that pose a threat,” the
spokesman, who wished to remain anonymous, said.
However,
video footage of this week’s protests appears to show the canisters
dropping from a considerable height, reducing accuracy and increasing
the risk of head injuries.
Not
a threat
Israel
has repeatedly accused the protesters in Gaza of attempting to cross
the border fence and lay explosives in Israeli territory. It says the
use of live fire and tear gas is justified by the threat protesters
pose by breaching the barrier.
Israeli
police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told the AFP news agency previously
that the drones have “the capability of flying over certain zones
and certain areas and then letting go of tear gas in areas that we
want to prevent protesters from reaching”.
However,
MEE reporters in Gaza and the West Bank and videos emerging online
suggest Israeli forces targeted areas far from the border area and
people who did not appear to pose a threat.
(deze video is dezelfde als die in het daaronder staande twitterbericht wordt getoond)
Watch Israeli drones drop tear gas on journalists who were documenting Israel’s massacre in Gaza.
The entire Israeli enterprise is built on a war against truth. It not only spends hundreds of millions of dollars in propaganda (hasbara) but also deliberately targets journalists.
On
Monday, an MEE reporter was gassed by a drone along with several
other members of the media. The area targeted was clearly populated
by many journalists, with vehicles prominently displaying “Press”.
Video
footage also showed a drone dropping gas on a communal tent full of
women and children, apparently more than metres from the border.
(de video behorend bij dit Twitterbericht weet ik niet over te nemen, hier de link naar het originele artikel)
The Israelis keep dropping tear gas with a drone on this communal tent full of women and kids. We’re 500+ yards from the border and I can’t see anyone throwing stones nearby or any other justification. #Gaza
The
deployment of gas grenades from above appears in some situations to
have sown confusion and fear among crowds, rather than dispersing
them to other locations.
In
a demonstration on Tuesday near the illegal Israeli settlement Beit
El in the West Bank at least four drones deployed gas directly onto
protesters.
A
20-year-old protester there, who wished to remain anonymous, told MEE
that “panic ensued” when the drones appeared in the sky.
“People
were running in all directions unsure of where to go as the drones
hovered above our heads waiting to drop tear gas,” the protester
told MEE.
“The
Israelis have only begun using these drones in the last few weeks.
They are indiscriminate, and show no mercy.”
According
to Gabriel Avner, an Israeli security consultant, Israel’s policy
in Gaza is a departure from its usual crowd-control methods.
“The
situation in Gaza right now is completely different to what is
happening anywhere else… they’re thinking of this as a
full-on conflict zone,” he told MEE.
“There
is some cause for concern because the rules of engagement are
hard-coded,” he said, adding that the Israeli military needed to
make sure soldiers were properly trained to understand the potential
consequences when new technology such as this is introduced.
‘Kite
terrorism’
The
use of drones is not limited to dispersing tear gas, however.
Some
Palestinians have been flying kites across the border, often
incendiary ones carrying burning coals with the objective of starting
bush fires in Israeli territory.
According
to Israeli daily Haaretz,
the Israeli military has enlisted amateur racer drones to intercept
the kites, using the rotas and fish hooks attached to the crafts to
cut their cords and send them off course.
An
Israeli army drone flies near a Palestinian kite along the border
between Israel and the Gaza Strip, east of Gaza City on May 14, 2018.
(AFP)
The
drones intercepting the kites are operated by hobbyists, and can
reach speeds of 110 metres per second, Haaretz reported.
One
of the kites that reached the Israeli side of the divide carried a
suspected remote-controlled bomb, the paper reported.
While
the device did not explode, and police sappers said it may have been
a dud or a fake, the paper speculated it could herald a new phase
along the border of what it called “kite terrorism”.
Many
of the kites are harmless, however, with protesters often using them
to fly the Palestinian flag.
If
not intercepted by drones, these kites are often shot down using live
fire.
Technology
to sell
Israel
is one of the world’s leading countries in drone technology.
It
has been using unmanned aerial vehicles since the late 1970s, when
they were used by the military for surveillance in south Lebanon, and
were widely deployed in Israel’s 1982 invasion of its neighbour to
the north.
Mack,
the human rights lawyer, noted that Israel has previously used
conflicts to showcase its weaponry with the intention of selling it
on.
Israel
sells its arms and technology to many countries. Last month
the German
Defence Ministry announced
its intention to sign a $1bn contract with Israel Aerospace
Industries to lease unmanned aerial vehicles.
Tel
Aviv has been criticised for selling
weaponry to
governments with poor human rights records, most
recently Myanmar,
which has reportedly bought Israeli military equipment as it conducts
an operation against the Rohingya minority. The Myanmar government’s
assault against Rohingya communities has been widely described as
ethnic cleansing.
Israeli
company Global
Group also
sold surveillance drones to the beleaguered and cash-strapped
government of South Sudan for millions of dollars in December.
The
South Sudanese government’s forces have been accused by the UN of
serious human rights abuses since its civil war broke out in 2013.
The
Israeli military’s use of drones to drop gas in Gaza and the West
Bank suggests that the models sold to South Sudan could equally be
adapted to release tear gas or other payloads.
“Larger
commercial drones … are designed to carry a range of payloads
(large cameras for sports events, crop-spraying attachments), so are
designed to operate payload functions remotely. This would be very
easy to configure,” Bevan said.
Kaamil
Ahmed, Tessa Fox and Hind Khoudary contributed to this report.
READ
MORE ►
This
Palestinian camp is the community most exposed to tear gas in the
world
================================
Zie ook: ‘Israël vermoordde minstens 16 ongewapende demonstranten tijdens grootschalig protest‘
‘Pro-Israël propaganda in de reguliere westerse media, amper aandacht voor Palestijnse protesten‘
‘Gazastrook 2018 – Sharpeville 1960 >> terreur tegen vreedzame demonstranten‘
‘Schieten op ongewapende vreedzame demonstranten volgens Israël uit zelfverdediging……..‘)
‘Israël gebruikt nieuw chemisch wapen tegen Palestijnse demonstranten in de Gazastrook‘ (Wel aandacht voor ‘Syrische gifgasaanval’ in Douma, maar als Israël daadwerkelijk dit wapen inzet, blijft het doodstil….Israël, samen met Egypte, de twee landen die nog steeds chemische wapens ontwikkelen, produceren, opslaan en…. exporteren!! Wellicht leveren deze landen ook aan de terreurgroepen, ofwel de ‘gematigde rebellen’ in Syrië, die met instemming van het westen over voorraden gifgas beschikken…… Zowel Israël als Egypte staan achter de psychopathische terreurgroepen in Syrië, groepen die, zoals gezegd, in het westen ‘gematigde rebellen’ worden genoemd…..)
‘Palestijnen en groot deel wereld rouwen om tweede door Israëliërs vermoorde journalist……….‘
‘VS ambassade Jeruzalem gedompeld in Palestijnenbloed……..‘
‘Canadese arts neergeschoten door ‘heldhaftige’ Israëlische sluipschutter…..‘
‘Israel: White Phosphorus Use Evidence of War Crimes‘
‘‘Hooggerechtshof’ Israël keurt vermoorden van ongewapende Palestijnen goed…….‘
‘Israëls wil tot vredesoverleg met Palestijnen’: 2.500 nieuwe huizen op West Bank…………..‘
PS: de Israëlische luchtmacht, één van de terreurorganisaties die Israël ‘rijk is’, heeft een aantal uren geleden een aanval uitgevoerd op de Gazastrook, waar het ‘posities van Hamas’ zou hebben getroffen aldus berichtte de BBC…….. Heb geen berichten over slachtoffers kunnen vinden op het net, daar de BBC meldde dat er geen slachtoffers zijn gevallen bij die aanval.
