EXCLUSIVE Hamas killers are carrying children and using them as literal human shields during gun battles, Israel claims, as IDF release footage of terrorists beating Gaza civilians and stealing aid

• The Daily Mail has spoken to three IDF drone operators deployed in Gaza mission
• One of the pilots witnessed the horrors of October 7 from her drone monitor

Hamas terrorists have been caught breaking every rule of engagement in the book from clutching children as they shoot, dressing as women and firing from mosques, Israeli drone pilots have claimed.

As the civilian death toll mounts, UAV operators have given a unique insight into the atrocities they are witnessing on the ground.

Extremists have learnt to exploit their strict rules of engagement with barbaric cynicism leaving IDF forces with impossible decisions.

The Daily Mail has been handed a trove of damning evidence from the Air Force that show aerial images of missile launchers placed by schools, mosques, and nurseries.

It also includes incriminating footage of the militants stealing humanitarian aid from their own people and beating civilians within Gaza.

Men, purportedly Hamas terrorists, are seen unloading a truck said to be carrying aid into Gaza. Israel has accused the terror group of hijacking aid trucks carrying supplies that were meant for the civilians of the beleaguered coastal strip 

In one aerial clip, the group of men are seen beating another. According to IDF drone operators, the group was made up of Hamas fighters, while the victim on the end of the beating was a civilian from Gaza

We travelled to Palmachim Airbase on the Mediterranean coast near Tel Aviv and spoke to three female drone pilots who face desperate moral challenges every day.

‘When we recognise children following terrorists we stop attacking,’ said the unit’s deputy commander who can only be identified as Major R. 

‘They learnt from this. Now they’re going down the street with a child in their hand.’

The 31-year-old lives on the base with her two children, aged four and one, and says motherhood has made what she sees Hamas doing even harder to comprehend.

‘The war caused a lot of children’s lives to be taken in the Gaza Strip and in Israel as well,’ she said. ‘I’m very, very sorry for the childhood of these children.

‘I’m not the only one, I know. If I’m putting my children to bed these days… a lot of parents feel guilty. That there are children of Israel that are staying in Gaza, and our children are here.’

Major R was a drone pilot when Israel last had troops in Gaza nine years ago and she says the difference is stark.

‘The terror foundation accelerated at an unbelievable rate. Underground tunnels, all the weapons, the storage next to hospitals and schools.

The IDF said the footage was captured in Shejaiya, Gaza by a drone

A man with a stick or baton is seen hitting another man while standing on the back of an aid truck, that the IDF said was carrying supplies into Gaza

The IDF said Hamas took the aid back to its stronghold, even though it was meant for civilians 

‘It is much developed, and much worse than we knew and could even have imagined. We can see when we follow the trucks that are bringing humanitarian aid, the Hamas terrorists are going there and stealing all the equipment.

‘The civilians are throwing stones at them and Hamas threaten them with guns. It is a very hard situation to see.’

Among those under her command now are 24-year-old attack pilot, Captain N, and intelligence drone operator Captain H, 26.

The young women are among just a handful of females on the base and have a sense of duty and professionalism that belies their age.

Despite witnessing Hamas commit atrocities against her own people, Captain N knows that she must remain calm when at the controls.

‘I don’t think about revenge,’ she said, cooly. ‘I don’t think about this because, like my commander said, I am a professional.

‘Because this is the difference between me and them, the difference between my country and the terrorist organisation. I’m not like one of them.’

Explaining exactly what ‘one of them’ does, Captain N told of the violations of international law she and her fellow pilots have witnessed.

‘They take the women’s clothes and they put them on so that we will think that they are women and will not attack,’ she said.

‘The terrorist will also have a gun in one hand and pick up a child in the other, and then he shoots with one hand while holding the child, one hand the gun.

‘During the ceasefire we saw many, many people taking poles to make missiles. The ceasefire was meant to see the civilians get humanitarian aid, and they are using that to arm up.’

The pilots all get psychological counselling on the base for what they see up close on their two daily four-hour flights on the Hermet 900s.

Captain H, 26, witnessed the October 7 atrocities from her drone monitor. She was a dance instructor in the reserves when she got called in at 6.30am that morning.

An Israeli drone pilot examines a Elbit Hermes 900 UAV being used in IDF’s Gaza operation

Israel’s Captain H, 26, witnessed the October 7 atrocities from her drone monitor. She was a dance instructor in the reserves when she got called in at 6.30am that morning

‘It was awful,’ she said. ‘They were everywhere, thousands of terrorists just killing people, civilians. Young people in the party and families in the Kibbutz.

‘We were faced with a situation we have never seen before, to detect between enemies and our own people.’

Asked how she coped with seeing the carnage close up, she said: ‘You really don’t have time to struggle. You need to operate, and not to think.

‘But later on, like two weeks later, there was one day that something fell down and I realised what happened. That was devastating.

‘Because you realise how many people you have lost, how many in this horrible situation we were forced into.’

On juggling her emotions with her daily job, Captain H added: ‘When we come through the door we must forget everything. We must be professional.

‘Then when we go home, then this is the time when we feel we can grieve and we can cry. We have our emotions, these just come right back.’

Her commander, Major R, has one glimmer of hope from the awful situation given what she has seen on the ground.

The IDF previously released satellite images which it claimed proved Hamas was placing military targets, such as missile launch sites, near key civilian infrastructure on Gaza

A satellite image released by the IDF purportedly showing a rocket launch site near a school

A satellite image released by the IDF purportedly showing a rocket launch site near a nursery

A satellite image released by the IDF purportedly showing a rocket launch site close to a UN building

‘Sometimes I feel like the Palestinian people, their civilians and children, and our intentions are almost identical,’ she said. ‘Civilians on both sides think that we cannot continue with Hamas.

‘We only hope that they will choose another authority rather than Hamas so that we can live side by side.’

In one drone clip shared by the IDF, a group of what appear to be Hamas fighters in Gaza are shown stealing aid off a humanitarian truck. 

The group of armed men are seen crowded around the truck, while one is shown hitting a civilian with a weapon or some kind of baton.

The IDF accused the terror group of transporting the packages to their stronghold, this depriving the citizens of the aid that was meant for them.

‘All the aid goes underground. It does not reach all the people,’ an elderly Palesinian woman said in an television interview last week. 

‘We came here from Gaza city … all the aid is meant for us. I am not afraid, I am talking to them as well. Hamas takes everything to their homes. They can take me, shoot me or do whatever they want to me.’

Other footage released by the IDF shows what they claim to be missile launchers near buildings such as schools or medical sites.

The Israeli military has long accused Hamas of positioning weapons and other military targets near civilian infrastructure in an attempt to deter the IDF from striking such targets, in effect using the civilian buildings as shields.  

IDF soldiers prepare to enter the Gaza Strip, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, at Israel’s border with Gaza in southern Israel, December 13

The three drone pilots spoke as the IDF suffered its deadliest day in Gaza since the ground operation to eliminate Hamas was launched on October 27

The three drone pilots spoke as the IDF suffered its deadliest day in Gaza since the ground operation to eliminate Hamas was launched on October 27.

Israel’s army said today that the number of soldiers killed so far in its offensive in Gaza had reached 115, after 10 soldiers had been killed in fighting in the north of the territory on Tuesday, the deadliest day so far.

Separately, the army said on Tuesday it had recovered the bodies of two hostages taken on October 7. 

The two were Ziv Dado, a solider, and Eden Zecharya, a Supernova festival-goer. 

Meanwhile, Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry said on Wednesday it had exhausted its supply of vaccines for children and warned of ‘catastrophic health repercussions’.

The day before, the UN’s human rights’ chief Volker Turk said the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip was ‘beyond breakdown’.

The UN General Assembly overwhelmingly passed a non-binding resolution on Tuesday demanding a ceasefire in Gaza – taking the lead from the paralysed Security Council.

The body, which includes all 193 UN member nations, voted 153 in favour of the resolution – exceeding the 140 or so countries that have routinely backed resolutions condemning Russia for its invasion of Ukraine.

Ten countries including the United States and Israel voted against while 23 – including the United Kingdom – abstained.

Among those to vote in favour were Israel’s long-standing allies Canada, Australia and New Zealand, whose leaders also released a rare joint statement.

It said: ‘The price of defeating Hamas cannot be the continuous suffering of all Palestinian civilians.’

With the deteriorating situation on the ground, US President Joe Biden warned Israel it risked losing global support for its war against Hamas with ‘indiscriminate’ bombing in Gaza.

An Israeli Apache military helicopter flies over an area near the Israeli-Gaza border, as seen from southern Israel, 13 December

Israeli forces shell the Gaza Strip from the border area in southern Israel on December 12

In Biden’s most blunt remarks since the October 7 attack, the president told donors that Netanyahu needed to ‘change’ his stance on a two-state solution.

Netanyahu meanwhile said there was ‘disagreement’ with Biden over how a post-conflict Gaza would be governed, reflecting a rare rift after weeks in which the US leader has strongly backed Israel.

Hamas launched an unprecedented attack against Israel on October 7, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking around 240 hostages, of whom 105 have been released and several killed, according to Israeli officials.

In retaliation, Israel launched an offensive in Gaza that the Hamas-run health ministry says has killed at least 18,400 people, mostly women and children.

Source: Read Full Article