REPORTS have emerged of Israeli drones playing recordings of women and children crying to lure Palestinians to locations where they can be targeted before opening fire.
Residents of Gaza’s Nuseirat refugee camp – situated in the north – said they were woken up on Monday night to sounds of babies crying and women calling out for help.
When they went to help, they reported Israeli drones opening fire on them.
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According to witnesses at the scene, up to ten people were injured by the drone fire overnight.
One resident told the Middle East Eye that they heard a woman screaming for help, saying, “Help me, my son was martyred”.
When people went to help the woman, they were instantly shot by drones and had to be taken to hospital as a result.
Other refugees inside the Nuseirat camp said they heard similar recordings, and that they were being played by Israeli forces to target Palestinians.
One man heard sounds of what he thought were woman and a baby calling for help from the street.
“The voice was coming from outside of the house door – it was a quadcopter with four propellers,” he said.
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“It headed towards the tents broadcasting the same crying. We called my cousin in the tents and told him, ‘Don’t fall for it. It’s just a sound system.’
“Abu Anas al-Shahrour, [from this] area, they shot him in the head.”
As well as sounds of women and children, residents also said the drones played sounds of gunfire, explosions and the movement of military vehicles.
The organisation Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor also reported residents occasionally heard songs in Hebrew and Arabic, which they argue is a form of "psychological intimidation".
At the same time as the drone recordings, eyewitnesses reported that Israeli forces attacked the refugee camp with machine gunfire from helicopters, tanks, artillery and airstrikes.
A number of civilian casualities were reported.
It comes as the death toll in Gaza has risen to almost 34,000 Palestinians, with more than two thirds of those killed believed to be women and children.
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