Palestinian Territory - In recent days, the Israeli occupation army has intensified its use of quadcopter drones as tools of psychological intimidation, surveillance, and direct killing, particularly in areas where civilians have sought refuge after being forcibly displaced from northern Gaza. This systematic pattern appears aimed at stripping away any sense of safety and turning displacement zones into death traps.
Multiple incidents have been documented in which quadcopters were used to broadcast eerie, distressing sounds deliberately intended to incite panic among civilians. In other cases, quadcopters entered crowded homes at night, hovered within rooms, filmed sleeping families, and then exited through windows, leaving behind deep psychological trauma.
These incidents have not occurred near combat zones or areas marked for evacuation. Rather, they have taken place in densely populated neighbourhoods—among the last remaining spaces for civilians in Gaza—such as southern Al-Rimal and central Gaza City. These are limited areas now packed with hundreds of thousands of displaced people, forced there after Israeli forces seized control of nearly 75% of the Gaza Strip.
Spreading fear and luring victims
Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor's field team documented the frequent low-altitude flights of Israeli quadcopters, which would deliberately hover outside windows, in corridors of shelters, and above displaced persons' tents. The drones would circle slowly before broadcasting disturbing sounds specifically designed to terrify and psychologically exhaust civilians.
These included the sounds of dogs savaging children, terrifying screams of children in pain, desperate cries from elderly people, and women ululating in grief, alongside constant ambulance sirens designed to suggest massacres were occurring nearby.
These were not random noises. Rather, they are part of a deliberate, layered tactic meant to drain civilians mentally, pressure them to flee, and simultaneously lure them into deadly traps. The drones broadcast highly specific sounds intended to evoke primal fear, prompting terrified civilians to approach windows, balconies, or leave their tents—seeking clarity or escape. As soon as one appears, the drone may open fire, turning a basic human response into a calculated act of murder. The quadcopter becomes both a psychological weapon and a physical one.
Mohammed Salameh, a resident of Al-Rimal in central Gaza, told Euro-Med Monitor: "About two days ago, around 1 a.m., we began hearing horrifying sounds—dogs attacking children, the children screaming, interrupted by the cry of an elderly woman, then back to the sound of children being mauled. It lasted several minutes. At first, we couldn't identify the source and almost went to the windows to check. But at the last moment, we realised the sound was moving closer and farther. Then we saw it—a quadcopter drone hovering directly outside the window."
He added: "These drones have conditioned us not to respond to cries for help because we simply can't tell if it's a real emergency or a trap designed to lure us into being shot. We're paralysed by doubt and fear."
In several cases, quadcopters invaded civilian homes, displaced persons' tents, and shelters—exploiting the destruction of most windows. They entered bedrooms at night, hovered over sleeping families, recorded them, and left.
One woman from Gaza City (whose name Euro-Med Monitor is withholding for safety) shared: "I was sleeping with my children in a rented flat in southern Al-Rimal after our home was destroyed. The windows were broken, so we covered them with plastic. That night, I had lifted a corner to let in some air. As we lay on the ground in the dark, I heard the unmistakable sound of a drone. I opened my eyes to find it hovering above us. I panicked but kept still and whispered the shahada, expecting it to fire. I kept blinking, and it remained there, likely filming us, before exiting through the same window."
She concluded: "Even though it didn't shoot, the fear was overwhelming. Now, I dread going to sleep. I fear the darkness, the windows, the doors—any opening to the outside. I no longer feel safe. At any moment, these drones can invade our homes, film us, or simply open fire."
In several testimonies documented by Euro-Med Monitor, Palestinians reported that the unsettling sounds emitted by Israeli quadcopter drones during the night terrify them "more than the bombings themselves," becoming a source of dread "more than the fear of death." The constant presence of these drones fosters a relentless feeling of being watched, keeping people in a perpetual state of anxiety and tension amid an ongoing genocide that, for the past 19 months, has stripped them of any sense of safety.
Long-term psychological and physical consequences
Despite the devastating reality of Israeli airstrikes dropping thousands of tonnes of explosives and enforcing a policy of systematic starvation, the use of quadcopter drones as instruments of terror, whether through their disturbing noise, live gunfire, dropping bombs, or intruding into shelters at night while civilians sleep, has inflicted severe psychological trauma. These tactics have deeply damaged both individual and collective mental health, exacerbating chronic fear among the population, particularly women and children.
Repeated exposure to the sudden, disturbing drone sounds—alongside the booming explosions from Israeli missiles and rigged robotic devices—triggers constant overstimulation of the nervous system. This leaves survivors in a state of perpetual alertness and fear, draining their physical and emotional energy long after direct bombing stops.
The persistent drone presence during late-night hours, their proximity to windows and rooftops, and their emission of eerie, unsettling sounds generate an enduring sense of imminent danger. This terror infiltrates every corner of daily life, sparking episodes of panic among individuals and entire communities, especially in overcrowded areas, shelters, displacement tents, markets, and aid distribution points, where there is nowhere to hide or escape.
Deepening psychological breakdown
The relentless psychological stress experienced for extended hours each day is manifesting in severe neurological and mental deterioration across various forms: chronic insomnia, recurring nightmares, sudden emotional breakdowns, inability to concentrate, aggressive behaviour, and cycles of deep depression or complete emotional numbness. These effects are particularly pronounced among the most vulnerable groups: children, women, and the elderly.
The entire population of Gaza now lives in a constant state of anticipatory fear, severely impacting their daily functioning and mental stability. There is a marked rise in alarming psychological symptoms, particularly among children, including bedwetting, panic attacks, uncontrollable crying, and speech and communication disorders.
The distressing auditory environment created by these quadcopters has especially damaging effects on children and adolescents, undermining their ability to focus, hindering emotional development, and leading to behavioural and educational disorders. It is fostering a generation burdened by long-term psychological and social trauma.
Women, especially mothers, are acutely affected by their overwhelming sense of helplessness in protecting their children from persistent terror. This leads to deep psychological distress. Coupled with the collapse of healthcare services and chronic malnutrition, this stress has contributed to a worrying rise in miscarriages. There has been a reported 300% increase in pregnancy losses since the onset of the genocide—an alarming indicator of the cumulative physical and psychological toll on women living under constant siege and assault.
A systematic tool of genocide
The Israeli army's use of quadcopter drones for intimidation and direct targeting of civilians is not random but forms part of a documented and repeated pattern. In April 2024 alone, such drones were used in the Nuseirat refugee camp and on multiple other occasions across the Strip.
After illegally taking de facto control of large parts of Gaza and issuing forced displacement orders affecting roughly two-thirds of the territory, the Israeli military did not stop at dispossessing Palestinians of their homes. It pursued them even into the narrow strip of land where they were forcibly relocated, through continued bombardment, mass killings, and psychological terror—including the daily deployment of drones as a form of oppressive surveillance and control, invading every aspect of civilian life and haunting displaced people in their sleep, in their temporary shelters.
These practices are part of a systematic and coordinated strategy of genocide. The Israeli military employs unethical and inhumane methods against the civilian population in Gaza, causing long-lasting physical and mental harm, as part of a deliberate effort to destroy the Palestinian people as a national group.
The Israeli occupation forces have deliberately repurposed various types of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), including those originally designed for surveillance and reconnaissance, into offensive tools. These drones are first employed to gather intelligence, then subsequently used to carry out acts of intimidation and direct targeting of civilian objectives — in clear and serious violation of international law.
Although drones are not inherently classified as prohibited weapons under international law, their use is fully subject to the rules of international humanitarian law (IHL) governing the conduct of hostilities. Like any other method of warfare, their deployment in armed conflict must adhere to key principles, notably the distinction between civilian and military targets, proportionality in the use of force, and the obligation to take all feasible precautions to avoid or minimise harm to civilians prior to launching an attack.
"Quadcopters" — a class of drones developed by Israeli military industries — are characterised by their compact size (typically less than one metre in diameter), four rotors, ease of programming, and remote electronic control. They are equipped with various tactical features.
The primary justification for drone use in armed conflict, as recognised under international norms, is to minimise civilian casualties. These technologies offer advanced capabilities not found in many conventional weapon systems, such as real-time video surveillance, continuous observation, precise targeting, and the ability to track moving targets with speed and flexibility.
However, these very capabilities expose Israel's deliberate use of drones to target Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip. Most killings occurred in open areas where combatants and civilians could be easily distinguished. Drones often loitered above the scene long enough to gather accurate intelligence about the situation on the ground. Moreover, the use of low-altitude, short-range precision ammunition suggests that these killings were carried out with full knowledge and intent, not as collateral damage or as a result of misjudgment.
The deliberate use of drones to emit terrifying sounds to intimidate the civilian population constitutes a grave violation of Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which prohibits collective punishment and acts of terror against civilians. These practices, which inflict profound psychological trauma, fall under the prohibited means and methods of warfare under IHL, as they directly target the mental and emotional well-being of civilians.
This systematic pattern of psychological violence is part of a broader policy that extends beyond the threshold of war crimes or crimes against humanity, touching on the very core of the crime of genocide as defined in Article II of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. Specifically, paragraph (b) criminalises "causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group," while paragraph (c) prohibits "deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part."
The use of drones in this manner — as tools to terrorise the population, break their psychological resilience, and shatter their sense of security — forms part of a broader campaign of mass killing, suffocating blockade, deliberate starvation, and enforced impoverishment. These acts clearly reflect an intent to destroy the Palestinian people in Gaza as a distinct group.
All states, individually and collectively, must uphold their legal obligations and act urgently to halt the ongoing genocide in Gaza by all means necessary. This includes taking effective measures to protect Palestinian civilians, ensure Israel's compliance with international law and rulings of the International Court of Justice, and guarantee accountability for crimes committed against the Palestinian people.
The international community must impose economic, diplomatic, military, and arms-related sanctions against Israel in response to its systematic and egregious violations of international law. This includes a comprehensive embargo on arms, spare parts, software, and dual-use items; suspension of all political, financial, military, intelligence, and security cooperation; freezing the assets of political and military officials implicated in crimes against Palestinians; enforcing travel bans; halting the operations of Israeli military and security companies in international markets; freezing their financial assets; and suspending bilateral agreements and trade preferences that economically benefit Israel and enable its continued perpetration of crimes.
States with universal jurisdiction laws must issue arrest warrants for Israeli political and military officials involved in the crime of genocide and initiate legal proceedings to prosecute them, fulfilling their international legal responsibilities to punish grave breaches and end impunity.
