It’s a Trap

Anyone following Palestinian social media accounts has seen their heroism. Palestinians dig people out from rubble with their bare hands. They rush injured civilians to the hospital in their own vehicles and donkey carts. They comfort other people’s children, sometimes not even knowing the whereabouts of the child’s parents or whether they’re still alive.

So what would the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) expect Palestinians to do if they heard the sounds of women or children in distress? Of course Palestinians will rush to help. And once they do, they’re essentially sitting ducks, ready to be hunted down like targets in a video game by drones that are controlled by some IDF operative miles away sitting safely in a command center. And who knows, the “kill” might be used for another snuff film for an Israeli Telegram channel like 72 Virgins – Uncensored.

Sound too dystopian and sci-fi to be true? Well, in mid-April 2024, a few sources began reporting that the Israeli military was using drones with sounds of crying women and children in order to lure Palestinians out and then shoot them. For example, Middle East Eye reported on April 17, 2024:

“On Sunday and Monday night, residents of the northern parts of Gaza’s Nuseirat refugee camp woke up to the sounds of babies crying and women calling out for help.”

“When they went outside to locate the source of the cries and provide aid, Israeli quadcopters reportedly opened fire directly at them.”

This sounded sick and perverted even by Israel’s standards, but al-Jazeera reporter Anas al-Sharif posted a video of one such incident on his X (formerly Twitter) account. Human rights organization Euro-Med Monitor also reported on it.

Although it may be hard to believe, we’ve seen so much depravity six months into this war that anything is possible. This story about drones started circulating just a couple weeks after several World Central Kitchen aid workers were hunted down by Israeli drones and murdered. And it was only a couple weeks after +972 Magazine published an article titled “‘Lavender’: The AI machine directing Israel’s bombing spree in Gaza” about Israel’s use of artificial intelligence to generate Palestinian targets for execution.

And lest you think the Israeli military couldn’t sink any lower, you may end up disappointed. Don’t feel bad; I used to be naive, too. It’s only a matter of time before an even more unbelievable story comes out.