Israeli Drone Pilots Targeted Own Settlements, Bases, Civilians On 7 October: Report

The pilots never imagined they would have to carry out air strikes on their own territory, and on such an 'undreamt-of scale'

Israel’s fleet of Hermes 450 “Zik” armed drones carried out attacks on Israeli military bases, settlements, and civilians during the Hamas attack on 7 October, according to a 14 November report from Mishpacha Magazine.

Previous reports have emerged showing that Israeli forces used tanks to kill Israeli civilians barricaded inside homes with their Hamas captors, and Apache helicopters to fire on Hamas fighters and their Israeli captives while returning back to Gaza.

During the fighting, some 1,200 Israelis were killed, with some killed by Hamas, and others by Israeli forces. Hamas took some 240 Israeli soldiers, civilians, and foreign workers captive.

Israel’s armed drone program was initiated in 1993 by Ehud Barak, then Chief of Staff of the army under Prime Minister Yitzak Rabin. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon later approved the use of offensive drones for assassinations in the Gaza Strip. The best known of these attacks was the killing of paraplegic Hamas founder Ahmed Yassin in 2004.

Since that time, armed drones have slowly been replacing Israel’s previous use of warplanes, including US-made F-16s.

In its 14 November report, Mishpacha interviewed members of Squadron 161, which operates Israel’s Zik drone fleet, for details of the role they played on 7 October, including in Kibbutz Be’eri.

The orthodox Jewish-focused magazine noted that Zik drones were the first aircraft to respond to the Hamas attack, and that “for the first time in history, they had to carry out strikes within Israeli territory, even on IDF [Israeli army] bases.”

“The squadron was facing a scenario they had never imagined, on an undreamt-of scale, and above all, having to carry out strikes inside Israeli territory, inside bases, inside kibbutzim, something they had never prepared for,” the magazine added.

“Who ever thought we would have to carry out strikes inside Israeli territory, and on that scale? That was a scenario we had never imagined,” stated First Lieutenant A.

He explained that there were initially no Israeli forces on the ground, and so he and other drone operators were using their cell phones to communicate with civilians in the settlements, or kibbutzim, for the locations of Hamas fighters to hit with airstrikes. “We eliminated dozens of terrorists this way. You talk to a civilian, receive a location, release your payload, and return to base. Again and again, like a movie,” he said.

Crucially, the drone operators targeted not only Hamas fighters but also their Israeli captives. “On each flight, they killed dozens of terrorists, prevented them from advancing further into Israel or returning to the Strip with captives, and helped stop the attack,” Mishpacha wrote.

🔗SOURCE ➡️ The Cradle

Related Reading: 11/28 — More Israeli Military Personnel, Witnesses Speak Out, Substantiating Oct. 7 "Conspiracy Theories" That IDF Killed Israeli Civilians and Israeli Leadership Ignored Intelligence Prior to Attack

11/14 — Oct. 7 is to Radical Zionists As Covid was to Davos Elite: Convenient to a Pre-Existing Depopulation Agenda

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