Israel has escalated its use of boobytrapped robot vehicles in Gaza City

According to new research by Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor (Euro-Med Monitor), over the past week, Israeli occupation forces have loaded up about 120 old armoured vehicles with large amounts of explosives, and detonated them in busy residential neighbourhoods of Gaza City.

Each blast is equivalent to the force of an earthquake measuring 3.7 on the Richter scale, not only shaking buildings which are several kilometres away from the blast centre and destroying homes, but also spreading fear and panic throughout the city.

Israel using boobytrapped remote robot vehicles to detonate devastating explosions

These boobytrapped robot vehicles, which are decommissioned US made M113 armoured personnel carriers – large military vehicles which were once used to carry soldiers – are each loaded with six or seven tonnes of explosives and remotely piloted through central residential neighbourhoods in Gaza City. There, they are directed to explode in locations which are carefully selected to maximise destruction.

Euro-Med Monitor has estimated that each robot can completely or partially destroy around 20 housing units, while the shockwaves of these detonations can destroy buildings within roughly 90 metres. They can cause cracks in buildings and damage windows hundreds of metres further away. Because Gaza’s buildings have been weakened by almost two years of continuous bombing, the damage from each blast is much worse than it would normally be.

This method of using boobytrapped vehicles on such a large scale is unprecedented in modern warfare, and is seen by Euro-Med Monitor as an attempt to forcibly displace Palestinians and eliminate their presence from Gaza.

The damage caused by each explosion is enormous, with the blasts producing shockwaves so powerful they can be heard up to 40 kilometers away, across southern Israel. Each explosion destroys or makes unsafe around 20 homes, leaving even more Palestinians fighting for survival – with no food, medical care, or shelter.

Boobytrapped robots ‘mercilessly’ wiping entire neighbourhoods ‘off the map’

Israel’s boobytrapped vehicles do not only cause physical destruction. Euro-Med Monitor says they are also used as a:

systematic tool of psychological terror, spreading extreme fear among civilians and coercively driving them to flee.

The powerful explosions are designed to break the spirit of the Palestinians by making them feel unsafe even in their own homes. A resident of the obliterated Zaitoun neighbourhood in southeastern Gaza City told the NGO:

For weeks we have barely managed to snatch a few minutes of restless sleep. Booby-trapped robots pound through the night, mercilessly tearing down homes and buildings, wiping entire residential neighbourhoods off the map.

International humanitarian law prohibits the use of weapons such as these boobytrapped vehicles, whose effects cannot be limited to military targets. These explosions affect homes and people indiscriminately, violating the rules of war, which aim to protect civilians. This use of force is a war crime, and when done systematically, as the Israeli occupation has done for the past 24 months, it rises to the level of crimes against humanity and genocide.

International leaders are still failing to act

The use of these boobytrapped vehicles by Israel was first documented during its incursion of Jabalia refugee camp in Northern Gaza, in May 2024. Since then, they have been used more and more across the Gaza Strip and, last week, the Israeli publication Walla, reported that the Israeli army had begun deploying an ‘unprecedented’ number of remote-controlled armored vehicles packed with explosives into Gaza City.

Despite this evidence of illegal and devastating tactics, the international community has failed to act, to stop Israel’s genocide, and hold the occupation accountable. Urgent international action is essential, right now, and Euro-Med Monitor is urging the UN General Assembly to use its emergency ‘Uniting for Peace’ resolution to call a special meeting aimed at sending peacekeepers to Gaza. These peacekeepers would protect civilians, allow humanitarian groups to deliver aid safely, and pressure Israel to stop its genocidal campaign against the population of Gaza. This intervention, necessary under international law, would challenge Israeli impunity and protect civilian lives amid escalating war crimes.

On 18 September 2024, the UN General Assembly (UNGA) set a 12-month deadline for Israel to end its unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. This has now expired.

Featured image via the Canary