Now it’s official: IDF uses drones in strikes
The IDF uses drones for attacks and not only for reconnaissance, the military censorship cleared for publication, essentially revealing a well-known secret.
An IAF drone. (IAF)
The military censorship cleared for publication on Wednesday that the IDF uses unmanned aircraft for attacks, stating that “at the end of the staff’s work, during which the censor examined the field of attacking drones in an in-depth and factual manner, it was found that there is no obstacle to publishing the IDF’s use of drones as part of its operational activities.”
Drones with offensive abilities have been in the IDF’s service for about three decades but have been kept a secret, supposedly to preserve Israel’s tactical capability.
The last deployment of such a drone occurred on Tuesday when the IDF attacked a Hamas position in the Gaza Strip after shots were fired from the Strip at an industrial building in Moshav Netiv HaAsara. The IDF reportedly used the Zik, an Elbit Hermes 450, in the strike.
Some of the famous strikes executed by drones include the assassination in 2012 of Ahmad Jabari, the commander of Hamas’ military wing, which launched Operation Pillar of Cloud.
Another famous attack occurred in 2009 in Sudan. The IDF attacked a convoy of 17 trucks carrying rockets and weapons on their way to terrorist organisations in Gaza. About 50 Sudanese and several Iranians were killed in the bombing.
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are used on a regular basis for strikes in the Gaza Strip and in Syria.
Israel is one of the largest UAV exporters in the world, reportedly with clients in some 50 countries.
