Activists have accused the UK government and Israeli arms company Elbit Systems of running scared from a court case that would have put their collusion with Israeli war crimes on trial. This follows the announcement that all charges have been dropped against nine campaigners who occupied the roof of an Elbit Systems factory in Staffordshire during Israel’s 2014 assault on Gaza. This means that the UK government will no longer be required to reveal details of the arms trade with Israel, and Elbit will avoid having to testify about the use of its drones during Israel’s massacre in Gaza last summer. The protest shut down UAV Engines, owned by Israel’s Elbit Systems, for two days from 5-6 August 2014 during Israel’s 50 day assault on the Gaza strip. The Israeli-owned factory exports engines to Israel for use in Elbit’s Hermes 450 drones that are widely documented as having been used to deliberately attack Palestinian civilians in Gaza, including during Israel’s massacre of more than 2,...

The Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas, has seized an Israeli reconnaissance drone in Gaza Strip’s Shejaiya district. According to media reports, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades announced the capture of the “Zionist reconnaissance plane” via a message posted on its Arabic Twitter account on Monday. In a separate statement, the brigades reportedly added that in addition to capturing the drone, Hamas fighters have also “continued to pound enemy positions and cities with dozens of rockets” in response to “Israeli crimes against our people and ongoing barbaric aggression on our people in Gaza.” The statement further said the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades would “not remain silent on the crimes of the occupation” and that it would make Israel “pay a high price for its aggression, and think a thousand times before embarking on any aggression against our people.” more

JERUSALEM (AFP) -- An unmanned aircraft of the sort Israel uses for surveillance and missile strikes in Gaza crashed in the south of the territory early on Tuesday, sources on both sides said. Members of Hamas' military wing, the al-Qassam Brigades, discovered the remains near Khan Younis, witnesses said. Parts of the unmanned aircraft were found 500 meters from the border with Israel. "A Sky Rider drone crashed in the southern Gaza Strip due to a technical malfunction," an Israeli army spokeswoman told AFP. "An investigation is under way." more

Amna al-Dam kept the deflated red football her 12-year-old son Mamoun was playing with when he was killed by an Israeli drone strike in the occupied Gaza Strip on 20 June 2012. “I held my Mamoun in my arms when he died and everything felt destroyed for me,” his mother said. “I hope that he is the last child to be killed in Palestine.” She described how his body was torn apart, his clothes burned off him – and she recalled his tenderness. “You are my darling, I just want to keep you locked inside my heart,” he used to tell his mother. Mamoun is profiled in a new report by the charity War on Want, “Killer Drones: UK complicity in Israel’s crimes against the Palestinian people.” He is one of more than 800 Palestinians killed in Israeli drone attacks since 2006. more

An Al-Qaida-linked group active in the Sinai Peninsula said Saturday that its fighters were the target of a reported Israeli drone strike into Egyptian territory, a rare operation that could indicate increased Egyptian-Israeli security cooperation against militants in the lawless border zone. Ansar Bayt Al-Maqdis, in a statement posted on a militant website, said that a Israel Defense Forces drone that crossed into Egyptian airspace killed four fighters as they were preparing a cross-border rocket strike into Israel. It said the dead were from Egyptian Sinai tribes and that the rocket squad's leader escaped. Egyptian security officials, speaking anonymously on Friday, said that a drone firing from the Israeli side of the border had killed five suspected militants. The conflicting accounts could not be reconciled. Both said the site of the strike was about five kilometers (three miles) inside Egypt. However, Egyptian armed forces spokesperson Ahmad Mohammad Ali denied the Is...

TEL AVIV — Israel’s military has enhanced capabilities in monitoring the Gaza Strip. The military’s Southern Command has improved training and equipment in maintaining surveillance on the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip. The command has used its Nesher Battalion to collect combat intelligence from the 360-square kilometer strip. Surveillance zeppelins are one of the tools being used by Israel to keep tabs on the Gaza Strip. “The Combat Intelligence Corps has significantly upgraded its detection systems in the past few years,” the military said. On July 2, the military reported that Nesher integrated advanced intelligence collection assets that target the Gaza Strip. The assets were said to have included radar, remotely-operated weapons and balloons that reach an altitude 300 meters. “These balloons have two missions,” deputy battalion commander Maj. Shai Barda said. “One is to assist the soldiers on the ground in monitoring every visible inch of the borders, and the second is to gather ...

GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- Israeli military vehicles escorted bulldozers into a border area in central Gaza on Wednesday, locals said. Seven bulldozers flanked by four military vehicles crossed into a border area near al-Bureij refugee camp at around 6 a.m., penetrating 300 meters into fields and leveling agricultural lands, witnesses told Ma'an. Israeli drones were hovering at a low distance during the incident, locals added, with Israeli forces firing smoke bombs. more

Video posted on YouTube from Al-Aqsa TV shows a drone that Palestinian resistance fighters say they shot down over Gaza. Israeli government spokesman Ofir Gendelman tweeted, “The drone that Hamas showed on TV is not Israeli and is not in service in the IDF. This is another failed Hamas PR prop.” However examination of images of the drone suggest it is Gendelman who is lying. In the TV clip, the anchor identifies the downed drone as a “Skylite B,” an unmanned aerial vehicle made by the Israeli weapons firm Rafael. more

By Alison Weir at Antiwar.com ...It’s a happy picture, the kind that makes you smile; perhaps it reminds you of funny, energetic little children you know or remember. Until you see the next picture. It was taken on his second birthday. His name was Islam Quraiqe. Death from a drone strike is not pretty. The small body is charred , ripped apart; internal organs are pouring out. He had been riding with his father and uncle on a motorcycle in Gaza when the missile hit them. His 29-year-old father, a member of the Palestinian resistance, and 32-year-old uncle physician were also killed. Five bystanders, including a woman, were injured. The missile was fired remotely by an Israeli sitting in front of a video screen and operating one of the many drones that periodically fly over Gaza and shoot Palestinians like fish in a fishbowl. The operators are usually female, the preferred group for this kind of desk job. The drones, which look like small, pilotless jets, are equipp...

From the Guardian Israeli drones in Gaza may have had British engines, ministers admit Government unable to say whether aircraft used to target missile strikes had UK-exported parts MPs are calling for a full account of arms exports to Israel amid growing concerns that British military equipment was used during the bombardment of Gaza – contrary to Israeli assurances and UK export guidelines.