'Worry and Fear': Incessant Israeli Drones Heighten Gaza Anxiety

Children react following an Israeli air strike in Gaza City on August 6, 2022. (AFP)
Children react following an Israeli air strike in Gaza City on August 6, 2022. (AFP)
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'Worry and Fear': Incessant Israeli Drones Heighten Gaza Anxiety

Children react following an Israeli air strike in Gaza City on August 6, 2022. (AFP)
Children react following an Israeli air strike in Gaza City on August 6, 2022. (AFP)

Gaza teenager Bissam says she has trouble sleeping and concentrating as the buzzing sound of Israeli military drones above the crowded Palestinian enclave drives her to distraction.

When she is at home in the cramped family apartment, the 18-year-old said she feels that "the drone is constantly with me in my bedroom -- worry and fear don't leave our homes.

"Sometimes I have to put the pillow on my head so I don't hear its buzz," she said, adding that the drone noise gives her headaches.

Unmanned surveillance aircraft have become an integral part of Israel's 15-year-old blockade of the impoverished enclave, and 2.3 million Palestinians endure their incessant hum, AFP said.

Bissam, whose family requested their surname be withheld for security reasons, said that together with the street noise, the drones create an unbearable cacophony.

"At night I try to review the lessons for my exams, but I can't read because of this annoying racket," she said from the cramped Gaza City apartment she shares with her parents and five siblings.

Each month, Israel uses drones above Gaza for 4,000 flying hours -- the equivalent of deploying five of the unmanned aircraft permanently in the sky -- the military told AFP.

The drones "collect intelligence data 24 hours a day", said Omri Dror, a commander from Israel's Palmachim airbase where the aircraft take off.

- 'I'm scared like my children' -
During an 11-day war in May 2021 between Israel and Gaza fighters, the Israeli army deployed 25 drones for 6,000 flight hours to constantly monitor the territory, according to army data.

It intensified that presence during a three-day conflict in August this year, using 30 drones for a total of more than 2,000 flight hours.

Bissam's mother Rim said she struggles to calm her children when the drones fly overhead, fearing an Israeli air strike could follow even if there is no active conflict.

"I'm basically scared like them. How can I reassure my children?" the 42-year-old said.

The din above the family home is particularly acute due to its proximity to a base of the Al-Qassam Brigades -- the armed wing of Gaza rulers Hamas -- but drones are also heard above busy shopping streets.

"The kids sleep intermittently. We wake up, we sleep, then we wake up" again, Rim said.

- 'Always the drone is there' -
In Gaza's southern city of Khan Yunis, psychiatrist Iman Hijjo treats Palestinians whose conflict trauma is triggered by the sound of Israeli drones.

Israel and Hamas have fought four wars over the past 15 years.

"When an insect moves around you, you can hit it, but not the drone," Hijjo said, adding that the situation leads to a "sense of powerlessness".

"The drones keep Gaza's skies closed, without a horizon or hope," she said.

Children suffer "fear and anxiety" as a direct result of the drones, Hijjo said, lamenting a lack of scientific research to determine longer-term impacts.

"Children need to feel safe in order to develop," fellow psychiatrist Sami Oweida said. "But with the presence of drones in the sky, these feelings cannot flourish."

The unmanned aircraft are so omnipresent that artists have even referenced them in their works.

The "sound of drones flying above my family and friends stops the games, the chatting and the laughter", Palestinian poet Mosab Abu Toha wrote in his recent English-language collection "Things You May Find Hidden in My Ear".

He told AFP that "the buzzing of the drones and the intermittent raids of the F16 (warplanes) have become an integral part of our lives".

"I write about the sky, the sea, the clouds, the setting sun, my children, my neighbors," he added. "But always, the drone is there. It fails to leave us."



Amnesty International Says Israel and Aid System Use Starvation to Commit Gaza Genocide

Palestinians queue for a hot meal at a charity kitchen at the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on May 4, 2025. (Photo by Eyad BABA / AFP)
Palestinians queue for a hot meal at a charity kitchen at the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on May 4, 2025. (Photo by Eyad BABA / AFP)
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Amnesty International Says Israel and Aid System Use Starvation to Commit Gaza Genocide

Palestinians queue for a hot meal at a charity kitchen at the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on May 4, 2025. (Photo by Eyad BABA / AFP)
Palestinians queue for a hot meal at a charity kitchen at the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on May 4, 2025. (Photo by Eyad BABA / AFP)

Amnesty International issued a report Thursday claiming a controversial Israeli- and US-backed system to distribute aid in Gaza uses starvation tactics against Palestinians to continue to commit genocide in the Gaza Strip during Israel's war with Hamas.

The UK-based human rights group condemned Israel and the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which the US and Israel have backed to take over aid distribution in Gaza from a network led by the United Nations.

Israel’s foreign minister denounced the Amnesty report, saying the organization has “joined forces with Hamas and fully adopted all of its propaganda lies.”

Gaza’s Health Ministry says more than 500 Palestinians have been killed at or near GHF distribution centers over the past month. The centers are guarded by private security contractors and located near Israeli military positions. Palestinian officials and witnesses have accused Israeli forces of opening fire at crowds of people moving near the sites.

The Amnesty report said Israel has “turned aid-seeking into a booby trap for desperate starved Palestinians” through GHF's militarized hubs. The conditions have created "a deadly mix of hunger and disease pushing the population past breaking point.”

“This devastating daily loss of life as desperate Palestinians try to collect aid is the consequence of their deliberate targeting by Israeli forces and the foreseeable consequence of irresponsible and lethal methods of distribution,” said Agnès Callamard, Amnesty’s secretary general.

Israel rejects claims

The Israeli army says it has fired warning shots to control crowds and only fires at people it says are acting suspiciously.

The Foreign Ministry and COGAT, the Israeli defense body in charge of coordinating aid to Gaza, said Israel has facilitated the entry of over 3,000 aid trucks into the Gaza Strip since May 19 and GHF has delivered boxes of food with the equivalent of 56 million meals.

Humanitarian organizations say that amount is not nearly enough to meet overwhelming need in Gaza. GHF did not immediately return requests for comment.

The World Food Program says despite the new Israel-backed initiative, food consumption reached a critical low last month, with food diversity reaching its worst level since the conflict began.

“The continued closure of crossings, intensified violence since March, soaring food prices, and extremely limited humanitarian and commercial supplies have severely restricted access to even basic food items,” the WFP said in a June report.

GHF hubs are close to Israeli military positions

Amnesty’s report follows a statement earlier this week from more than 165 major international charities and non-governmental organizations calling for an immediate end to the foundation. They say the new mechanism allows Israel to use food as a weapon, violates humanitarian principles and is ineffective.

It’s the latest sign of trouble for the GHF, a secretive initiative headed by an evangelical leader who is a close ally of President Donald Trump. Last month, the US government pledged $30 million for the group to continue operation, the first known US donation to the group, whose other funding sources remain opaque.

GHF started distributing aid May 26 following a nearly three-month Israeli blockade that pushed Gaza’s population of more than 2 million to the brink of famine.

Palestinian witnesses have described scenes of chaos around the distribution sites, and two contractors in the operation have told The Associated Press that colleagues fired live ammunition and stun grenades toward crowds of people. Palestinians often must travel long distances to reach the sites.

In a statement Tuesday, GHF rejected criticism of its operations and claimed it has delivered more than 52 million meals to hungry Palestinians.

“Instead of bickering and throwing insults from the sidelines, we would welcome other humanitarian groups to join us and feed the people in Gaza,” GHF said.

GHF has called for Israel’s military to investigate the allegations from Gaza’s Health Ministry, but last month the organization said there has been no violence in or around its centers and its personnel have not opened fire.

Israel demanded the alternative plan because it accuses Hamas of siphoning off aid. The UN and aid groups deny there is significant diversion.

Amnesty's allegations of genocide Amnesty accused Israel last year of committing genocide in the Gaza Strip during its war with Hamas, saying it has sought to deliberately destroy Palestinians by mounting deadly attacks, demolishing vital infrastructure, and preventing the delivery of food, medicine and other aid.

Israel, which was founded in the aftermath of the Holocaust, has adamantly rejected genocide allegations against it as an antisemitic “blood libel.” It is challenging such allegations filed by South Africa at the International Court of Justice and has rejected the International Criminal Court’s accusations that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister committed war crimes in Gaza.