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Israel Thwarts Attempt To Smuggle Commercial Drones Into Gaza

An anonymous reader writes: The Jerusalem Post reports that the Shin Bet intelligence agency recently foiled an attempt to smuggle commercial multicopter drones into Gaza, Israel authorities announced on Sunday. The inspectors stopped an Israeli truck carrying toys at the Kerem Shalom Crossing, where drones of various types and sizes carrying high quality cameras were found. Additional attempts to smuggle commercial drones were intercepted by the Shin Bet in recent weeks. The drones were earmarked for use by Hamas group in Gaza. Close inspection of released images reveal what seems to be a Syma X5 FPV quadcopter. Those toy-grade multirrotors have a onboard wifi camera. Once you've downloaded the streaming app to your phone you are able to connect the on board camera to your phone and use it to give you FPV footage.

24 of 312 comments (clear)

  1. The world... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The world is such a sad place.

  2. So Israel bans drones with cameras? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    What exactly do they have to hide?

    And why do they only ban them for Palestinians?

    1. Re:So Israel bans drones with cameras? by JoshuaZ · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Drones can be easily used as weapons against civilian targets. It isn't much more complicated than strapping explosives to them. It would be one thing if these drones were going to the West Bank which is relatively peaceful, but these were going to Gaza which is controlled by Hamas.

    2. Re:So Israel bans drones with cameras? by Midnight+Thunder · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Apparently oppressed people can also be used as weapons against civilian people. Therefore we showed ban oppressed people. Ugh, ok, suggestions?

      --
      Jumpstart the tartan drive.
  3. Let them have the drones by Grishnakh · · Score: 4, Insightful

    They should just let them have the drones, and put up WiFi jammers around the perimeter of the Strip so that the drones are useless outside of Gaza. These things can't have that much range anyway.

  4. Because Gazans are prisoners by presidenteloco · · Score: 4, Insightful

    under house arrest in their own home.
    They are not regular free human beings like you and me.

    And the world allows this F'd up situation to continue.

    --

    Where are we going and why are we in a handbasket?
    1. Re:Because Gazans are prisoners by slashping · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Regular free human beings like me don't have the intention of wiping Israel off the map if we had a chance.

  5. Racist thugs don't like being filmed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

    As the map of land that hasn't yet been ethnically cleansed continues to shrink, it is rather inconvenient to have someone shoot a video of you shooting some children, or maybe a video of you attaching some electrical wires to them to torture them, or what about pushing an old Palestinian man out of his wheelchair and beating him; and these are only examples from the least week of racial abuse in Palestine.

  6. Re:How typical of religious people by freak0fnature · · Score: 1, Insightful

    If my neighbor regularly launches explosives at me, why would I let them have drones with cameras to see where to shoot those missiles at? What does religion have to do with is?

  7. It's all about "inmate" actions by SuperKendall · · Score: 1, Insightful

    When the "inmates" as you call them (even though they can come or go as they please) are prone to strapping on explosive to the drone and piloting into something like an Ice Cream parlor, or schools as Hamas does with rocketsl, why yes - it may be a good idea to limit the (rephrased) "animals" from having ways to kill yet more innocent civilians just because they are Jewish.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
    1. Re:It's all about "inmate" actions by wbr1 · · Score: 2, Insightful
      In the 2014 conflict the numbers lined up as follows:
      Israeli: 66 Soldiers, 5 Civilians, 1 Thai civilian
      Palestinians (per the UN count): Militants 789, Civilians 1,462 (65% civilians)

      So yes, some angry people with a god I don't believe in and very limited weapons have struck at a much better armed and equipped -invading- force who believe in another magical sky being.

      Sorry, but faith asid, there is no question to me who is ethically in the wrong here.

      --
      Silence is a state of mime.
    2. Re:It's all about "inmate" actions by Schmorgluck · · Score: 1, Insightful

      I fucking hate practically everything about Israel's policy since Yitzakh Rabin's assassination, but within the framework it put itself (and its people) into, banning drones, even toy drones, is a sensible move. Toy drones aren't an essential good, and creatively used with nefarious intent, they could ultimately endanger Israeli lives - while banning them doesn't endanger any Palestinian life. All in all, while not a positive, it's a non-negative.

      Many things have to change about Israel's behavior, but as far as things go, I'm quite "so what?" about this particular issue.

      --
      There's nothing like $HOME
    3. Re:It's all about "inmate" actions by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      More Germans than Americans or Brits died in WW2. Does that make the Americans or Brits the aggressors in WW2?

      Body count does not correlate to who is the aggressor. Just who is losing.

  8. Re:How typical of religious people by sjames · · Score: 3, Insightful

    If my neighbor bulldozed my house and there were no cops to call, I might lob explosives at him.

  9. Are you lying or incompetent? by SuperKendall · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Since Hamas provides the casualty numbers and affiliations and the numbers are dramatically skewed, they very clearly reflect that the numbers you laid out include a LOT of combatants labeled as civilians.

    Including women; if you had bothered to read my ice cream link.

    But here's the thing; Hamas has fired thousands of rockets at civilian targets. You are basically giving them CREDIT just because many thousands of Israelis are not dead who would have been, if it were not for a very good missile defense system...

    If you really cared at all you would consider the count of attempted fatalities, not the final result.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
  10. Re:You can't let these get into the by ARos · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The US felt the need to hit Japan twice with the bomb, since the Japanese simply refused to surrender and continued to attack American soldiers. Israel unilaterally left Gaza in 2005. They uprooted all of their settlers and soldiers - no Jews whatsoever in Gaza (even though Jews had been living in Gaza for centuries). What did the Palestinians do? They destroyed all the greenhouses and synagogues and elected into office a terrorist organization that had conducted over 100 pre-planned, organized suicide bomb attacks against Israeli civilians. The checkpoints and border walls (also enforced by Egypt BTW) are in place to prevent these animals from committing more terrorist acts against soldiers and civilians. This all goes away when the people of Gaza rid themselves of the Islamists who hold their future hostage.

  11. Re:You can't let these get into the by sitrachra · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Should the Israelis apologize for not dying enough? there are about 12000 people in Gaza who are armed and ready to kill Israelis. I hope they die before they kill anyone.

  12. Re:You can't let these get into the by ARos · · Score: 5, Insightful

    They kill 100-300 Palestinians for every Israeli that's killed on account of the fact that Hamas and Islamic Jihad's missiles are launched from within densely-populated urban neighborhoods. Retaliatory strikes (which every single country in the world would be justified to make when fired upon) are generally precision-guided toward the location of the rockets. The IDF have dropped leaflets, sent text messages, knock-knock bombs, etc. to warn Palestinian civilians of pending retaliatory strikes. Hamas forces them back into their homes, since greater civilian casualties result in more sympathy from idiot leftists in the West.

  13. Re:You can't let these get into the by NoImNotNineVolt · · Score: 2, Insightful
    There's a double standard that's applied here, and nobody seems to mind.

    Muslims launch rockets at Jews, killing civilians. This is bad, because killing civilians is bad.

    Jews launch rockets at Muslims, killing civilians. This is seen as different than the aforementioned case bacause:
    a) Israeli rockets are "retaliatory", whereas Hamas is the instigator here, so it's okay. Of course, Hamas has been explicitly retaliating for Israel's annexation of Palestinian territory (and for the British/UN interference circa ~48 that enabled subsequent annexation), but $excuses. b) These are guided rockets, so it's okay. Of course, Israel denies Gazans the right to guided munitions, but $excuses.
    c) Israel warns Gazans about pending attacks. Of course, Hamas has been warning Jews in Israel for a long time too, but $excuses.

    Regarding the first point, it's disingenuous to paint either side as taking any "retaliatory" actions but not the other side. Both sides have been spinning this conflict as "retaliation" for decades, and neither side has a stronger claim to "retaliation" than the other. Both sides see their actions as retaliatory, and both sides see the other as the instigator. In other words, both sides are biased, and neither side is being objectively reasonable here.

    Regarding the second point, I'm not saying that Hamas is "right" for shooting rockets into Israel. I'm merely pointing out that there's some degree of disingenuousness to blame Hamas for Palestinian civilian casualties because of where they launch their rockets from while at the same time refusing to blame Israel for Jewish civilian casualties because of where their rockets are launched from. If it is acceptable for Israel to kill Palestinians as collateral damage due to the inherent limitations of their weapons platforms, then that should equally apply to Hamas. There is no evidence that Hamas actually has the capability for guided missile strikes against valid military targets in Israel but is intentionally avoiding its use.

    Regarding the third point, I'm not even sure how to approach this issue. What if Hamas "dropped leaflets" all over Israel saying "we're going to attack now -- leave or be killed"? Would Hamas then be absolved of any subsequent Jewish civilian casualties when Israel discourages its citizens from capitulating to the demands of the enemy? Now, I understand that this isn't an entirely fair analogy, as Israel's attacks are much more targeted than Hamas', and furthermore, Hamas has actually forced Palestinians to stay, not merely discouraged them from leaving. However, it's not clear to me how Hamas' despicable actions can serve as justification for Israel's despicable actions. Are we to hold the two up against the same standard? Is the bar for Israel really set that low?

    They kill 100-300 Palestinians for every Israeli that's killed on account of ...

    Let's not even get into the fact that Hamas' rockets kill more Muslims than they do Jews. That sure as shit isn't going to help the ratio. Let's just be honest with ourselves: this conflict has gone on for so long that it's no longer to expect any sense of humanity on either side. I propose a novel solution in the form of a massive terraforming project. Let's turn the land that made up the British Mandate of Palestine into the Israeli-Palestinian Sea. The engineering doesn't matter. Dredge it, nuke it, whatever. But once it's underwater, we'll finally have peace. Or suicide-bombing scuba-divers. Either way, win-win.

    --
    Chuuch. Preach. Tabernacle.
  14. Re: Are you incompetent or lying? by TechyImmigrant · · Score: 5, Insightful

    People make bullshit up all the time if it helps them to insult/dissing/incite hate against Israel. Anti-semitism is alarmingly wide spread. Ignorance is bliss for a lot of people.

    Don't confuse anti-semitism with anti-Israeli-foreign-policy. There are overlaps, but they are not the same thing.

    --
    I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
  15. Re: Are you incompetent or lying? by dbIII · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Various lobby groups pretend the two are the same. Critical of someone in Israeli politics who is caught embezzling? You'll be called an anti-semite. Remember the shitstorm that descended on Robert Fisk for reporting on military actions in Lebanon and including a quote from an Israeli journalist? Apparently he was an antisemite for quoting a Jewish journalist that was a witness to an event that portrayed an Israeli military unit in a poor light.

    So sadly to some people the two things are exactly the same and it means tiptoeing around issues of Israeli politics to avoid being dragged off into full Godwin territory.

  16. Re:You can't let these get into the by ravenshrike · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Yeah... if the Israelis were indiscriminately killing civilians the casualty lists would look a lot different. Instead they are overwhelmingly concentrated on the category of males between 14 and 32.

  17. Re:How typical of religious people by Cyberax · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Israel is busy flattening Palestinian houses to build illegal Israel settlements. But that's OK, right?

  18. Simpe demonstration by Bruce66423 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    During the last Gaza war there were a lot of Western News journalist on the ground in Gaza. They knew they were safe from Israeli attacks because Israel was being careful. By contrast there are no journalists in Syria, because they wouldn't be safe there. Always assess the objective facts before adopting an analysis.