Israeli drones lure Palestinians with crying children recordings then shoot them
An Israeli quadcopter is seen over Gaza in 2018
Maha Hussaini reports in Middle East Eye on 17 April 2024:
Israeli quadcopters are employing a “bizarre” new tactic of playing audio recordings of crying infants and women in order to lure Palestinians to locations where they can be targeted.
On Sunday and Monday night, residents of the northern parts of Gaza’s Nuseirat refugee camp woke up to the sounds of babies crying and women calling out for help.
When they went outside to locate the source of the cries and provide aid, Israeli quadcopters reportedly opened fire directly at them.
Samira Abu al-Leil, a resident of the refugee camp, told Middle East Eye that she heard Israeli quadcopters opening fire during and shortly after playing the recorded sounds, which lasted for several minutes and recurred multiple times on Monday night.
“I heard a woman crying and screaming for help, saying, ‘Help me, my son was martyred’. The sounds were coming from the street and they were bizarre,” the 49-year-old said.
“Some men rushed out to the rescue, only to be shot by the quadcopters that kept roaming all night long.” According to eyewitnesses, at least seven to 10 people were injured by the quadcopter fire overnight.
‘The injuries were serious: some were shot directly in the head’ – Resident of Nuseirat refugee camp
Residents were unable to help the victims, as the “quadcopters were firing at anything that moved”. However, an ambulance managed to reach the area and transport them to hospital.
“At night, the streets are usually empty and men are inside their homes,” Leil added. “When the quadcopters open fire, they only hit the roofs and streets, they don’t find any people to shoot. So they played these sounds because they know the nature of our society; they know that men were going to try to provide help. They wanted them to go out so that they could shoot them,” she said.
“Yesterday and the night before, quadcopter bullets hit our roof, door and the street in front of our home. But yesterday morning, they fired some kind of explosive bombs with shrapnel that spreads everywhere on our neighbourhood, leaving many residents injured.”