The Israeli military has been altering commercial drones to carry bombs and surveil people in Gaza, an investigation by Al Jazeera’s Sanad verification agency has found.
According to Sanad, drones manufactured by the Chinese tech giant DJI have been used to attack hospitals and civilian shelters and to surveil Palestinian prisoners being forced to act as human shields for heavily armoured Israeli soldiers.
This is not the first time DJI drones have been modified and used by armies. There were similar reports about both sides of the Russia-Ukraine war in 2022. At the time, DJI suspended all sales to both countries and introduced software modifications that restricted the areas where its drones could be used and how high they could fly.
However, DJI has not stopped selling drones to Israel.
Not selling to Israel could make all the other right-wing countries they sell to nervous. But stuff like this from China is such a betrayal. About as much of one as Vietnam buying arms from Israel. It sucks that the only principled countries are the ones that are the most targeted by the US, and have the least capability to help others (although they certainly do what they can, like the Cuban doctors program, or Yemen keeping Palestine close).
They should at least demand the IDF to stop using their drones for warfare. China can easily invoke international law as an excuse seeing as how there is tonnes of evidence the IDF is actively using DJI and Autel drones in the Gaza genocide.