"‘Like a video game’: Israel enforcing Gaza evacuations with grenade-firing drones", 10 July 2025

The Israeli military has weaponized a fleet of Chinese-manufactured commercial drones to attack Palestinians in parts of Gaza that it seeks to depopulate, an investigation by +972 Magazine and Local Call can reveal....these drones are operated manually by troops on the ground, and are frequently used to bomb Palestinian civilians...in an effort to force them to leave their homes or prevent them from returning to evacuated areas.

Soldiers most commonly use EVO drones, produced by ...Autel...

S., an Israeli soldier who served in the Rafah area this year, coordinated drone attacks in a neighborhood of the city that the army had ordered to be evacuated...

According to him, the drone strikes were carried out with the intent to kill, despite the majority of victims being located at such a distance from the soldiers that they could not have posed any threat...

A....said that a primary goal of these attacks was to ensure that neighborhoods were emptied, or remained empty, of Palestinians. In June, his unit flew a drone into a residential area that the army had ordered to be evacuated the previous month...

Earlier this month, the Palestinian journalist Younis Tirawi published footage he had obtained of one of these drones dropping a grenade, which according to him targeted civilians in the Netzarim Corridor in northern Gaza....Based on the interface design and additional images reviewed by +972 and Local Call, there is strong evidence that the drone was an Autel model.

According to soldiers who spoke to +972 and Local Call, the main benefit of using commercial drones like the EVO model manufactured by Autel is that they are vastly cheaper than the military-grade equivalents...

...the military placed orders for thousands of Chinese-made drones, including models produced by Autel. Initially, these drones were used for reconnaissance: scanning buildings before soldiers entered them. But over time, more units received “iron ball” devices from the army and converted drones from intelligence tools into deadly weapons...

Ben-Yishai quoted a military officer who explained that these devices are doing the work of enforcing the army’s expulsion orders, and that the army automatically labels as a terrorist anyone who remains...

Mohammed is one of several Palestinians from Khan Younis who told +972 and Local Call that the Israeli army is using armed drones to enforce evacuation orders in the city — displacing residents and then preventing their return...

Drones have also been reported to have targeted residents near humanitarian aid centers...

...“It’s like a video game. There’s a crosshair in the middle of the screen, and you see a video image. 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.”...

Before publication, +972 and Local Call sent multiple emails to Autel requesting their comment on the investigation. After the article was published, the company responded to express its “strong shock and condemnation toward any action that leads to civilian casualties, violates international humanitarian law, or undermines the rights of innocent individuals in conflict zones.

“As a technology company committed to the peaceful use of innovation, we find the prospect of our products being associated — even mistakenly — with violence against civilians to be utterly unacceptable. Autel Robotics has never sold drones to any users in the Israeli region, including but not limited to the Israeli military or Ministry of Defense … We categorically reject any implication that Autel Robotics knowingly or negligently enabled the use of our drones in military operations or civilian harm. Any such actions would have occurred without our knowledge, authorization, or consent.”

Although detailed questions were sent to the IDF Spokesperson, they initially declined to answer them. After publication, a response was sent that does not specifically address the allegations in the article and states: “The IDF categorically rejects the allegations that it is acting intentionally to harm uninvolved people. Army orders explicitly prohibit shooting at uninvolved people. The IDF is committed to international law and allegations of violation of the law and orders will be thoroughly examined by the authorized mechanisms in the IDF.”