You might have seen this article circulating. This is from 972 mag, a zionist rag (that pretends to be on the left). The byline specifies "Chinese-made drones" are being used by the IOF to kill people in Palestine.
Except reading the article they clearly, black-on-white state that:
- The first batch of drones were bought by Statesians and donated to the IOF (lol, as if 3 billion $$$ a year isn't enough for them)
- Later, the US started producing these drones -- the Autel EVO -- in the US and donating them to the IOF.
The drones are also modified by the IOF to have a grenade mechanism attached, like in Ukraine. These are photography drones, they're being used for war because they're good quality otherwise.
In August 2024, China passed restrictions on the sale of civilian drones for military purposes and Autel themselves (this you can find in a reference linked in the 972 article) is opposed to this misuse of their tech but they can't really do anything about it if the US keeps producing them.
The real story here is the US can't compete with chinese drones so they steal the tech and produce knock-offs. How the times have changed.
972's byline is doubly weird because it's wrong. "Weaponizing Chinese tech" would be more accurate, I'd have problems with that but not as much. "Chinese-made drones" implies they are made in China or by China, which is not true.
This is a bit of a rant but I need comrades to stop falling for anti-AES propaganda everytime it happens. People instantly jumped on the "China is selling weapons to enemies of communism!" point. No. China does not sell weapons to the IOF, their tech is being misused. They don't sell weapons to the Philippines or provide them, they don't provide weapons to the US, they don't provide weapons to Ukraine, they don't provide weapons to anyone you've heard them provide weapons too.
I'll tell you who provides weapons though. The UK. The US. France. They find new ways to kill people in atrocious ways, and then send this experimental tech to the IOF to be tested on Palestinians. They have missiles that fire sharp steel blades upon impact cutting through everything it crosses in a 10 meter radius. They have bombs that deliver compound shrapnel that leaves almost no entry sign, but will shatter your spine completely.
Oooh but no, you can modify a photography drone by 3d printing a component, this means China must stop producing commercial quadcopters and leave the tech solely in the hands of the US!!! I am being very dialectical 🤓
Don't lose sight of what's actually important here. Stop looking towards what China does (which it doesn't do anyway) and look to your own countries instead. They're the ones enabling genocides.
This bothered me too on first sight. Here is a comment from another thread I made: https://hexbear.net/comment/6320322
Here is the attached article about US Zionists shipping these drones to the IOF: https://newlinesmag.com/reportage/a-fanatical-israeli-settlement-is-funded-by-new-york-suburbanites/
I had a back forth with someone from ml earlier today about this article, a post they have since deleted. These drones must have been bought between the July 31, 2023 export restrictions on drone tech and the July 2024 adjustments to those restrictions. The drones do not drop bombs, ~~they have a universal mechanism that can drop anything and Israel has created a mechanism to attach to that universal mechanism to drop grenades.~~
You can get attachments to the drone (aftermarket I think, not sure of the manufacturer makes a 1st party accessory that does this), that can facilitate dropping things. Likely the Israeli IOF is modifying this attachment or building their own. That's what the "iron ball" is in the article. The drone isn't equipped to drop anything until an attachment is used.
As it stands now China will not ship these drones to Israel. According to Autel, they have banned the sale of their drones to the entire region. They've made two statements on the matter. Here:
DJI has a similar statement pre 2023:
On Amazon and other platforms you can not get these drones shipped to Israel:
In the 9 months between the start of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood and the adjustments to drone exports Israel bought ~~20,000~~ Chinese made drones (likely through consumer channels) and also relied on civilian donations of drones.
The timeline on this purchase is unclear. It's also unclear if the changes to the export restrictions are a response to this purchase.
correction: Israel intends to buy 20,000 Israeli made drones.
From everything I've read and seen there isn't currently direct sales of drones from China to Israel.
Do you have a source for the latch mechanism? I don't see it on the pictures but I'm having trouble finding good pictures of the model.
My understanding is usually this is something they 3d-print completely aftermarket (at least in Ukraine they did).
OK I was slightly mistaken, You can get attachments to the drone (aftermarket I think, not sure of the manufacturer makes a 1st party accessory that does this), that can facilitate dropping things. Likely the Israeli IOF is modifying this attachment or building their own. That's what the "iron ball" is in the article.
So that's another shakey leg on this stool of a story. The drone isn't equipped to drop anything until an attachment is used.
Okay I wasn't aware you could just buy them lol! I didn't know anyone was selling those
Yeah when I originally wrote these comments I saw one in the Israeli Amazon (in Hebrew) that had a very similar image to the one I linked so I assumed it was a core feature of the drone. But yeah, you can just buy them. You probably pair the RF of the attachment to your controller so you can release it with a button press.
I really need to synthesize all this information into its own post.
Beautiful, comrade, I'm saving this one!