Booby-trapped robots loaded with explosives escalate killing and destruction in northern Gaza
Screenshot from Al Jazeera footage showing an Israeli booby-trapped robot in a neighbourhood of Jabalia Camp, northern Gaza, May 2024
Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor reports on 14 October 2024:
The Israeli occupation army is using booby-trapped robots equipped with tons of explosives to commit massive acts of destruction and killing, including massacres, willful killing, enforced starvation, and widespread forced displacement in northern Gaza.
Israel’s army has completely cut off the northern Gaza Governorate from Gaza City by deploying military vehicles, placing sand barriers and the rubble of destroyed homes, in addition to fire cover from drones.
The sound of the explosion was louder than the sound of air strikes, destroying roughly six or seven houses at once. Regardless of whether civilians are inside the houses or not, the occupation army blows up the robot.
Numerous testimonies have been provided to Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor regarding the Israeli army’s use of booby-trapped robots that are remotely detonated, causing extensive damage to surrounding homes and buildings and a significant loss of life at a time when the work of civil defense and ambulance crews is nearly entirely disrupted.
Israel’s use of booby-trapped robots is prohibited under international law, as these robots are considered indiscriminate weapons that cannot be directed or limited to military targets. Due to their nature, they directly hit civilians, or hit military targets, civilians or civilian property indiscriminately. As such, they are illegal weapons under international law, and using them in residential areas is a crime against humanity in and of itself.
In his testimony to the Euro-Med Monitor team, one of the people trapped in an area near the Al-Qassabi neighborhood, southwest of Jabalia camp in the northern Gaza Strip (his name was withheld for security reasons), said: “On Wednesday evening (9 October), a huge explosion occurred in the Al-Qassabi neighborhood, close to where we were. There was an enormous explosion sound. That was the loudest I have ever heard it. We can now differentiate between different explosion sounds, so we can determine if this sound is coming from artillery, aircraft, or another source. In fact, the sound of the explosion was actually louder than the sound of air strikes, to the point that white dust covered the entire area. It was subsequently discovered that this explosion was caused by a robot equipped with tons of explosives, destroying roughly six or seven houses at once. Regardless of whether civilians are inside the houses or not, the occupation army blows up the robot.”
Two additional robots were blasted by the Israeli army, according to the Euro-Med Monitor field team, in the Tawam and Zahraa neighborhoods next to the Civil Defense area west of Jabalia camp. Another robot was exploded in the vicinity of the Abu Ali Mustafa intersection in Bir al-Naja, west of Jabalia camp. Another witness trapped in the Faluja area told Euro-Med Monitor: “There were huge explosions in the area where we are trapped near the Al-Sharafi roundabout, and we cannot identify it,” adding that “More than 50 people are currently besieged in a house, three of whom were injured but could not be transferred to the hospital.”
During the second incursion into Jabalia camp last May, the Israeli army started using these robots for the first time in Gaza. As a result, many civilians were killed and numerous homes in the camp were destroyed. At the end of last May, photos of two booby-trapped robots ready to explode surfaced from the Tamraz Station area in the center of the Jabalia camp.
Using three different methods—aerial bombardment, booby-trapped robots, and planting explosives in homes before blowing them up—the Israeli army has increased its operations to destroy homes and residential buildings in the areas of its incursion in northern Gaza.