How cheap drones helped Hamas ambush Israel's sophisticated weaponry

Israeli airstrikes reduced entire neighborhoods in Gaza to rubble on Wednesday (11 October), as the West Asian nation’s war with the Palestinian militant group Hamas entered its fifth day. The recent conflagration has claimed more than 2,200 lives on both sides.

Israelis were left shocked on Saturday morning as Hamas militants fired a barrage of rockets and infiltrated their territory from Gaza. Gregg Roman, director of the Middle East Forum think tank, has dubbed the multi-front assault by Hamas the “largest operational and intelligence failure in the history of the Israeli military and Israeli government."

Videos circulated by Hamas show a slew of drones aided the group in its shock attack on the weekend. Let’s take a look at how the militant group deployed cheap drones to smother Israel’s highly advanced security systems.

Rocket strikes

Hamas claimed it had fired 5,000 rockets into Israel from Gaza on Saturday. Notably, the strikes were not limited to just border areas but also reached across southern and central Israel, including the suburbs of Tel Aviv, reported The Conversation.

Hamas’ rocket barrage is believed to have been a distraction to help its militants carry out the ground assault.

The militant group appeared to have charted the location of Israel’s key surveillance system and used weapons “specifically to take them out in the open stages of the assault, effectively blinding Israeli intelligence as to exactly what was going on and where,” according to Forbes.

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As rockets are too inaccurate to hit small targets, Hamas used a fleet of armed drones to further its attack. Also, Israel’s Iron Dome systems, which can track and intercept thousands of rockets, are greatly effective.

According to NDTV, small drones usually cost a fraction of an armoured personnel carrier (APC) and are capable of can taking out military vehicles and even neutralise troops.

Hamas uses drones

According to The Conversation, this was possibly the first time that Hamas successfully used armed drones.
Cornell University drone expert James Patton Rogers told Insider that cheap drones were a “key tactical element” in the Palestinian militant group’s broader attack against Israel.

Many footages shared online suggest drones were extensively used by Hamas. Some videos depict quadcopters, which can be operated via remote control, attacking people, a watchtower and even an Israeli military tank, reported The Conversation.

According to an analysis by private drone intelligence outfit DroneSec, Hamas deployed two main types of drones against Israel – cheap FPV drones and a new fixed-wing drone, reported Insider.

The outfit’s analysis found that the militant group ruling Gaza used multicopter drones armed with explosives on Israeli security towers, border posts and communication towers, as per a Forbes report.

Video of how Hamas started the operation by attacking and destroying strategic positions using Iranian drone technology and then blew up holes in the fence allowing Hamas’ members to infiltrate inside Israel. pic.twitter.com/OZWZ9q2QHC

— Asaad Sam Hanna (@AsaadHannaa) October 8, 2023

“Hamas looks like they’ve very carefully scoped out exactly the points at which the guard towers, the security towers, the border posts, the communications towers, the CCTV cameras — which have facial recognition — are at,” Patton Rogers told Insider.

“And then the drones have been sent in earlier on to take out a number of these key targets,” he added.

ALSO READ: Israel shuts major offshore gas field near Gaza: Will this drive up global gas prices?

Zouari drones

Hamas claims it launched 35 Zouari kamikaze drones towards Israel, reported Forbes. Once seen as a reconnaissance drone, it has been revised for an attack role, the report added.

The fixed-wing drone is named after Mohamed Zouari, a Hamas-linked Tunisian aviation engineer assassinated in 2016.

Patton Rogers told Insider that Zouari, which is equipped with only a “fire and forget” GPS system, is similar to America’s Switchblade and Russian Lancet drones, but “far less technically sophisticated.”

According to Forbes, these drones were launched simultaneously to “overwhelm” Israel’s advanced air-defense system – the Iron Dome interceptors.

⚡️Hamas publishes scenes of the "Al-Zawari" suicide drone that entered service and participated in the crossing of the troops into occupied territories pic.twitter.com/LQNlunhhUh

— War Monitor (@WarMonitors) October 8, 2023

Patton Rogers said that the Iron Dome may have been occupied by thousands of rockets fired by Hamas, leading to at least some drones evading the defences and getting through to strike targets, reported Insider.

Iran’s government-controlled news service IRNA reported that Zouari drones had “facilitated the crossing” of gunmen from Gaza. It also shared a purported training video of the drone.

Targeting tanks

A video shared online shows a multicopter drone dropping a munition on the Israeli Merkava Mk4 main battle tank. As per Forbes, Hamas claimed one of the Israeli tanks it captured had been taken out by a drone.

DroneSec said that footage also showed an armed DJI quadcopter drone striking an ambulance near a group of soldiers, according to the Insider report.

Experts observed that deploying these drones helped Hamas militants to cross the border and spread across southern Israel during the unprecedented attack, the report added.

Similar use of inexpensive drones to strike important targets has been seen in the Ukraine war, with both Moscow and Kyiv taking advantage of the tactic.

With inputs from agencies