Author: Cora Morris

After Gaza ‘ceasefire’, Israel’s drone wars move to devastate the West Bank.

Cora Morris
IDF drone strike on car in Qabatiya, near Jenin, 2025

‘Operation Iron Wall’ sees renewed aerial strikes on civilian infrastructure and the displacement of as many as 40,000 West Bank Palestinians since 21st of January

Israeli occupation attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank have intensified heavily since the beginning of the ceasefire in Gaza, with drone strikes a primary tool of destruction in the territory. Announced on the 21st of January, two days after the ceasefire took formal effect, ‘Operation Iron Wall’ purports to protect Israeli settlers by targeting ‘Iran-backed’ West Bank militants, according to an IDF press release. However, the rate and scale of the attacks – which has included an onslaught of military bulldozers and tanks, all but emptying Jenin’s 24,000 person* refugee camp – mark a clear objective to make life in the West Bank unlivable. Palestinian commentators have alleged a ‘Gaza-ification’ of the territory, with heavy, ongoing damage to civilian infrastructure and a mounting death toll. As of the 4th of March, an estimated 40,000 people have been displaced from refugee camps across the West Bank now occupied by the IDF, with a statement from Israeli Minister of Defence Israel Katz on February 23rd that residents ‘would not be permitted to return’.

Evidence points to an increase in drone strikes in the West Bank even prior to the ceasefire in Gaza, with grave consequences for Palestinian life. Reporting by Al-Jazeera details a January 8th strike on a home in the town of Tammun, 13 kilometres northeast of Nablus, that killed 3 people, including 8 and 10-year-old siblings Reda and Humza Bsharat, as well as their 23-year-old relative. In a video interview, a family member described the attack as ‘a message from the occupation, that no-one is safe in their homes’. This sense – already felt sharply by West Bank Palestinians subject to regular surveillance, occupation intimidation, and settler violence – has become once again inescapable in the weeks since the renewed ‘operation’ began.

Using data extracted from social media posts and ACLED’s database, we estimate that to date at least 19 drone strikes to have hit Palestinian territories in the West Bank since the 21st of January – however, there is a strong likelihood that these accounts are not comprehensive, and that this estimate is conservative. Available evidence suggests these have mostly been concentrated around Jenin. However, other intensive targeting has taken place in Qabatiya, Tammun, and Tulkarm, towns and cities with similarly large numbers in densely-populated camps. In Jenin, the destruction of key infrastructure using drones and bulldozers began forcefully on the 21st, with a reported death toll of at least 8, and 35 wounded, in the city alone. Videos posted online claim to display drone strikes on al-Damaj, a neighbourhood in the camp, with explosions audible in the recordings of a smartphone from a nearby area.

Israeli Drone Strikes in the West Bank, Jan-Feb 2025
Date Location Description
21/01/25 Jenin refugee camp Reports of multiple strikes during the first day of Operation Iron Wall, including on the neighbourhood of al-Damaj.
21/01/25 Burqin Reports of a drone strike on a house in Burqin, west of Jenin. Casualties unknown.
24/01/25 Qatabiya Drone strike on a vehicle in Qabatiya, just south of Jenin. At least two people killed, with strike celebrated by IDF in an X post.
26/01/25 Balata camp, Nablus Drone strike on a cemetery in the Balata Camp, warning Palestinians that were in the cemetery to evacuate the area according to ACLED.. No casualties reported.
27/01/25 Nur Shams refugee camp, Tulkarm Drone strike on a vehicle in Nur Shams refugee camp, in Tulkarm, targeting Hamas fighters. X posts by the IDF celebrate the ‘elimination’ of Ayoub Abu Atiya, ‘along with another terrorist’.
29/01/25 Tammun Drone strike in Tammun, 13km northeast of Nablus, with reports of 10 people killed and one injured. IDF claimed they killed 10 Hamas and Katibat Tammun (PIJ) militants, while Defence For Children International criticised the killing of a 17-year-old boy, Jihad Naser Yousef Bani Matar.
31/01/25 Jenin Several reported strikes in Jenin led to multiple deaths. A first drone strike, on a street, killed 16-year old Ahmad al-Saadi, and wounded two others critically. An hour and a half later, Ahmad’s older brother, Tamam, was killed, alongside 32 year old Nour Al-Saadi, thought to be wanted by Israel. The two were travelling by motorcycle from the hospital where Tammun worked.
31/01/25 Qabatiya A drone strike on a car in Qatabiya killed two people inside – named as Abdul Hadi Alawneh, Saleh Zakarneh – while a child, 15-year-old Diaa al-Din Ahmed Omar Saba’neh succumbed to injuries from the strike two weeks later on the 15th of February. His father was also injured.
31/01/25 Al Yamun A further strike in Al-Yamun, near Jenin, targeted a house, causing a large fire according to ACLED. No casualties were reported.
05/02/25 Tammun ACLED reports four drone strikes on areas in Tammun injured one person, with no further information available.
07/02/25 Jenin Drone strikes hit houses in Jenin according to ACLED, with no information on casualties available.
07/02/25 Tammun A drone strike hit an area in Tammun, with at least one person injured.
13/02/25 Jenin An Israeli occupation drone targeted and destroyed a vehicle within Jenin refugee camp. No reported casualties.
14/02/25 Jenin An Israeli military drone bombed houses in Jenin camp, with no reported casualties.

As in Gaza, children and the elderly have not been spared in the IDF’s calculations of who constitutes a legitimate target of violence in the West Bank, including in directed drone strikes. US-based outlet Electronic Intifada reports that of the 16 children killed in the West Bank since the beginning of the year, at least half were killed by drones.  Read more →

Death on Delivery: New Report examines civilian harm from intensifying drone warfare across Africa

Cora Morris
Click to open report

Research by Drone Wars UK has revealed the extent of civilian harm caused by military drone strikes across African states, including Ethiopia, Mali, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Somalia and Sudan. ‘Death on Delivery’, our latest report, highlights mounting civilian death tolls in states newly operating imported MALE-type armed drones across the continent, from manufacturers in Turkey, China, and Iran.

At an absolute minimum, it found, more than 943 civilians have been killed in at least 50 separate incidents between November 2021 and November 2024. Of the six states investigated, five have been verified as operating Bayraktar TB-2 drones produced by Turkish drone manufacturer Baykar, with several also operating Chinese Wing Loong II and Iranian Mohajer-6 armed drones. Most are engaged in ongoing domestic military campaigns against armed insurgent groups, but regularly fail to distinguish between civilians and combatants in their operations.

The report highlights a case study for each country, pointing to the grave consequences of drone warfare for local communities and the families of victims. In one incident in Ethiopia’s Amhara region, more than 85 civilians were killed in a drone strike on the village of Ch’obi, in October 2022. In another, in Nigeria, an ‘error’ of military intelligence killed at least 85 – and, according to some reports, as many as 125 – civilians gathered to celebrate the Islamic festival of Mawlud, in two misdirected drone strikes in December 2023. Throughout the report, numerous examples emerge of drone strikes in densely populated civilian areas, with little evidence to suggest precautions to mitigate civilian harm.

These cases show the urgent need for increased proliferation controls on armed drones, and the clear failures of responsibility of those exporting these weapons in providing them to governments with seemingly little intention of upholding international humanitarian law. The extent of civilian suffering demonstrated in this report should make clear the threat posed by the rapid expansion of drone warfare worldwide, facilitated by access to ever-cheaper weapons systems produced by irresponsible, profit-chasing manufacturers. Innocent civilians living with conflict, political instability and widespread insecurity now confront the added threat of drone attacks, rendering even the most basic facets of day-to-day life – visiting a market, or attending a place of worship – potentially deadly.

The report concludes with a set of recommendations, calling for drone-exporting states to conduct thorough investigations into civilian harm caused by their uncrewed systems, disclosing their findings publicly, and affirming a commitment to civilian protection. Given the significant civilian harm already caused, the international community should urgently establish and implement a new control regime to prevent further proliferation-related harm.

Our report also urges the UK government to work with other states, civil society, and victim groups to develop robust international controls on armed drone transfers and use. The UK should advocate for transparency, oversight, and accountability, including casualty recording and victim assistance, while explicitly condemning extrajudicial killings and affirming the applicability of international law to armed drone operations.

Online webinar  

On Wednesday 26th March 2025  we held an online webinar to examine the issues raised in the report.  Speakers were:

Cora Morris, co-author of the Death on Delivery report.  She joined Drone Wars in July 2024 and alongside her role at Drone Wars, she is a coordinator within Amnesty International’s Digital Verification Team, a research unit collating citizen evidence of human rights abuses worldwide. Elsewhere, she lectures in open-source investigation at the University of Cambridge’s Centre for Research Methods (CaRM).

Olatunji Olaigbe is a freelance journalist based in Nigeria. His work has been published by VICE, Al-Jazeera, Inkstick and The Record. His reporting often examines the underlying factors of societal issues and he was a winner of the International Organisation for Migration’s 2021 West and Central Africa Migration Journalism Awards.

Wim Zwijnenburg is a Humanitarian Disarmament Project Leader for the Dutch peace organisation PAX. His work focuses on emerging military technologies and their impact on how wars are being fought and consequences for arms proliferation. He is the author of the reports Does Unmanned Make Unacceptable, Armed & Dangerous, and Unmanned Ambitions.

Click to watch video recording of the webinar.

 

US ramps up spy drone surveillance of Occupied Palestine, Syria, Jordan and Lebanon

Cora Morris
With US Global Hawk drones to fly from Gloucestershire, US-UK collaborations are set to increase
USAF RQ-4 Global Hawk drone

The US military appears to have significantly increased the frequency of its reconnaissance drone missions over Occupied Palestine and neighbouring countries, according to flight tracking information identified by Drone Wars. The flights point to intensified US intelligence interests in the region, though the question of their precise purpose – whether general military intelligence, or more targeted surveillance – remains unclear.

The United States maintains an air base at Sigonella Airport in Southern Italy, from which it flies Global Hawk, MQ-4C Triton, and Reaper drones over Europe and the Middle East. While Reaper drones appear only sporadically in publicly-available flight radar registers, data shows that Global Hawks stationed at Sigonella flew missions across the Mediterranean at least twenty times through September, October and early November 2024, regularly crossing into the airspace over Gaza, the West Bank, and Jordan. On other occasions, flights spent hours circling off the coast of Israel, or, in the case of a Triton naval surveillance drone, flew northwards over Lebanon and Libya. Available data suggests that this marks a significant increase, with only one such deployment of a Global Hawk from Sigonella identifiable across June and July. As war and genocide in the region has escalated, expanding to devastating consequence into Lebanon and Syria, this uptick demonstrates an increased dependence on drone capabilities for US military intelligence.

The Global Hawk drone was developed by Northrop Grumman in the 1990s to maximise aerial surveillance capacity for the US military. With its advanced sensors and extensive operational range, the drone can remain airborne for over 30 hours, covering vast areas without the risk posed to crewed aircraft in territories deemed hostile. The drone’s high-resolution imaging systems and radar communications enable it to provide real-time data that informs military strategy, but which leaves communities subject to its missions under relentless aerial surveillance.

Global Hawk 11-2046 mission from Sigonella Air Base, 13th November 2024

In Palestine, surveillance is already inescapable. Long prior to the onset of the current war, Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank have been consistently subjected to round-the-clock observation, tracking and monitoring through extensive infrastructures of surveillance, including ubiquitous facial recognition technology. Israeli quadcopter drones, many of which are also fitted with deadly attack capabilities, hover constantly. Palestinians report the psychological harm wrought by this permanent monitoring, which threatens to enact more death at any moment. Read more →

Suspicious omissions: US and Chinese secret space drone missions spark questions and concerns

Cora Morris

To what ends might the United States Department of Defence have developed an unmanned,  highly-manoeuvrable ‘spaceplane’? Why have its lengthy missions – lasting as long as two and a half years – been so shrouded in secrecy?  And what are China’s intentions for its rival vehicle?  These questions and more underpin speculation around the dangers of an unfolding spaceplane race.

The US X-37b space drone, conceived by NASA and Boeing in the late 1990s, was taken up as a classified project of the US government’s ‘Space Force’ in 2004. At around nine metres long and four-and-a-half wide, the bus-sized vessel is launched by rocket but can land independently on conventional runways. Its significant cargo bay, however, rarely pictured open in any publicly-available images since its maiden flight in April of 2010, leaves uncertainty about the drone’s internal capacities, and its possible functions.

This secrecy has fuelled questions about the X-37b’s military capabilities – questions which have not been dampened by the minimal official communications issued about the X-37b’s purposes, despite the heavily  publicised spectacle of its launches.

A common official line for early flights – offering that the vehicle functioned as a contained test site for the viability of new satellite materials – justified extended missions with a need to examine these materials’ resilience over time. That this testing could not take place in the established International Space Station (ISS), however, implied secrecy, and added to the questions that have accompanied each of the space drone’s launches. Among other omissions, commentators have remarked on the absence of requisite UN notification and thus proper transparency for satellites the X-37b has released in flight – an unusual divergence from international space norms with which the United States usually seeks to demonstrate public compliance.

But it is in the months since the X-37b’s most recent departure, in late December 2023, that attention to its purposes has come to a head. The use of the highly powerful SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket for the plane’s launch – rather than the Falcon 9 rocket used for 2020’s launch  – has prompted questions: why might its engineers need the plane to orbit at the altitudes this higher-powered rocket could propel it to? These queries remain unresolved by formal statements regarding its still ongoing flight, which poses extended experiments into the atmospheric viability of plant seeds as the mission’s innocuous purpose.

In the absence of trustworthy information, it is of little surprise that curious minds have sought clues to intentions for the X-37b. In February 2024, Tomi Simola – an amateur satellite tracker from Finland – spied the spacecraft in one of his regular sky captures after weeks of collaborative effort by fellow online tracking enthusiasts.  Based on this, Harvard astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell remarked that the ‘unusual elliptical orbit’ of the plane appeared similar to that of US Space Force satellites used for detecting ballistic missiles in flight. McDowell speculates that the X-37b’s current mission could be about testing a powerful infrared ‘early-warning’ sensor used to detect such missiles – but stressed that this was only speculation. Indeed, without proper transparency, only such speculation is possible. Read more →