“Deprivation by Design”: Israel Intensifies Mass Killing Campaign in Gaza With Starvation and Daily Strikes
The scale of killing in Gaza is almost impossible to track as the Israeli military bombs and starves Palestinian civilians with impunity
By Rasha Abou jalal and Sharif Abdel Kouddous | Drop Site News | April 30, 2025
GAZA CITY—Three generations of the al-Khour family were wiped out when Israel bombed their family home in the al-Sabra neighborhood in central Gaza at dawn on April 26. The elderly patriarch of the family, Talal al-Khour, his wives, daughters, sons, and grandchildren were all killed in the attack. A total of twenty-two people—including twelve children—perished, their bodies blown apart and buried under the rubble.
“The airstrike occurred at dawn while we were asleep. Suddenly, we woke up to a blast that felt like an earthquake. We rushed into the street and found that the five-story home of the Al-Khour family had turned into a pile of rubble,” Mohammad Al-Ajla, a 37-year-old neighbor who helped retrieve the bodies, told Drop Site News. “As soon as the dust from the strike cleared, neighbors began trying to rescue members of the family. The recovery operation continued for eight straight hours. We saw bodies everywhere. There were children without heads.”
With the help of residents in the area, Civil Defense teams were able to retrieve fifteen of the bodies, which were later buried together in a mass grave. The remaining bodies remain trapped under the debris. Emergency rescue crews were forced to dig through the wreckage with their bare hands as a result of Israel denying the entry of equipment into Gaza and deliberately targeting the little machinery available, according to the Civil Defense spokesperson, Mahmoud Bassal.
“We could hear the cries of the wounded trapped under the rubble, but we were helpless to reach them. Over time, the screaming faded, and we no longer knew whether they were still alive or had been killed,” Bassal told Drop Site. “Many lives could have been saved, but the ongoing blockade and the denial of essential tools eliminated every possible chance for rescue.”
Since Israel resumed its scorched earth bombing campaign on March 18, Gaza has been transformed into a desert of death, in which rubble and ruin form the backdrop for an unceasing campaign of mass killing. The Israeli military has carried out multiple airstrikes and shelling across the enclave on a daily basis, pounding homes, displacement camps, cafes, hospitals, charity kitchens, so-called “humanitarian zones,” and other civilian sites.
The scale of the attacks is almost impossible to track. On Wednesday alone, three residential buildings in the Nuseirat refugee camp were bombed; one of the strikes killed six members of one family, including three siblings, all children. In a nearby building, eight people in a single home were killed. In Jabaliya, at least three people from the same family, including two young girls, were killed in Israeli artillery fire. On the coast, west of Gaza City, a fisherman was killed while pulling his boat ashore. In western Khan Younis, an overnight drone strike on a tent killed six people, including children. This is not a comprehensive list and does not even cover a 24-hour period.
Over two days last week, the Israeli military also targeted and bombed over 30 bulldozers and other pieces of heavy machinery. Some of them had been donated during the “ceasefire” to clear rubble, repair critical infrastructure, and rescue people after airstrikes, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
The scenes emerging from across Gaza, from Rafah in the south to Beit Hanoun in the north, are staggering in their horror. Children blown apart across rooftops or while riding their bikes; dead bodies strewn across a cafe, some still seated, slumped in their chairs; corpses wrapped in white body bags lined up alongside one another; suicide drones crashing into tents housing sleeping families; screaming parents and wounded children scattered in the streets.
“The massacres do not stop. We are being slaughtered from vein to vein,” Al Jazeera correspondent Anas al-Sharif said in a social media post.
At least 2,300 Palestinians have been killed over the past six weeks alone—the equivalent of over fifty people killed every day. Over 740 of the dead are children, the Director of the Information Unit at the Ministry of Health in Gaza, Zaher Al-Wahidi, told Drop Site. Since the start of the war, more than 2,180 families have been entirely annihilated—with all members killed—while more than 5,070 families have lost all members except for one surviving individual, according to the Government Media Office.
The relentless assault comes as Israel has imposed a policy of forced starvation on Gaza’s two million residents, sealing off Gaza completely and denying the entry of all food, fuel, medicine and other humanitarian goods since March 2—by far the longest blockade since the beginning of the war. More than 65,000 children in Gaza have been hospitalized with severe malnutrition, according to a statement this week by the Government Media Office.
Israel has made it clear that the intensifying military assault and the ongoing blockade are explicitly aimed at bringing Hamas to its knees. Negotiations for a ceasefire appear deadlocked with Israel scrapping crucial elements of the original three-phase deal signed by Hamas and Israel in January, and now pushing for Hamas to formally surrender, disarm, and exile its leadership as a condition to end the genocide.
Israel’s defense minister has reiterated that the denial of food, medicine, and other aid is being used to collectively punish the Palestinians of Gaza. “No humanitarian aid is about to enter Gaza,” Israel Katz said, announcing that “preventing humanitarian aid from entering Gaza is one of the main pressure levers.”
Using starvation as a weapon of war has had a devastating effect. Last week, the UN warned that Gaza “is now likely facing the worst humanitarian crisis in the 18 months since the escalation of hostilities in October 2023.”
The World Food Program recently announced that it had run out of food. “The situation is at a breaking point,” the organization said in a statement. Food prices have risen by 1,400 percent. With no remaining supplies of flour or fuel, Gaza’s bakeries have stopped functioning and remaining stocks of food are being rapidly depleted. The flour that is available is often insect-infested. Families are increasingly resorting to mixing crushed macaroni with flour to make bread and allocating just one piece of bread per family member per day.
With shortages of cooking gas and firewood, families are forced to burn plastic and other waste to cook the little food they have. People are foraging for wild plants and eating sea turtles that have washed ashore in order to survive. The UN last week said it identified 3,700 children suffering from acute malnutrition in March—now up to 80% from the month before. A total of fifty-three children have died of malnutrition since the war began.
The heads of twelve major aid organizations issued a joint statement last week warning that “Famine is not just a risk, but likely rapidly unfolding in almost all parts of Gaza,” and characterizing the situation in Gaza “one of the worst humanitarian failures of our generation.”
Over the past few weeks, the Israeli military has bombed the al-Ahli Hospital and the Al Durrah Paediatric Hospital, both in Gaza City; the Nasser hospital in Khan Younis and the Kuwaiti Field Hospital in Mawasi; and massacred fifteen emergency workers and first responders. The hospitals that are still standing are barely functioning, with severe shortages of medicine, equipment and doctors.
Meanwhile, the Israeli military continues to squeeze Palestinians onto smaller tracts of land within Gaza. About 70 percent of Gaza has been designated as “no-go” zones or placed under displacement orders. Over the past six weeks, roughly 420,000 Palestinians have been displaced yet again, with no safe place to go.
“This is deprivation by design,” the acting head of office for OCHA, Jonathan Whittall, said in a statement. “Land is being annexed from the north, from the east, from the south of the strip as forces advance… Gaza is being starved, it’s being bombed, it’s being strangled. This looks like the deliberate dismantling of Palestinian life.”
Saudi Arabia tells ICJ Israel considers itself above all laws
MEMO | April 30, 2025
A representative of Saudi Arabia told the International Court of Justice (ICJ) yesterday that Israel considers itself above all laws and refuses to comply with the court’s advisory opinion on halting its aggression against the Gaza Strip.
Mohamed Saud Alnasser, who is the director of legal affairs at the kingdom’s Foreign Ministry, condemned Israel’s “flagrant violations of international law” in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, as well as Gaza, adding that Tel Aviv’s unjustified blockade on Gaza, reflects brutality against civilians in the besieged Strip.
“Less than a year ago, the court heard that Israel’s policies and practices in the occupied territory, including its settlement practices, its continued occupation and its annexation of parts of that territory are flagrant violations of international law that must be brought to an end as a matter of urgency,” he said.
“Sadly, but predictably, Israel chose to ignore the court’s ruling, showing it considered itself above the law.”
Alnasser referred to Israel’s “hideous conduct” in Gaza, adding that the “most ruthless application has been the siege conditions imposed over the Gaza Strip since October 2023,” and that the worsening situation there has turned the Strip into a graveyard for thousands of innocent people
Alnasser stressed that preventing the entry of relief supplies into Gaza is a violation of all international conventions, calling on Israel to facilitate the work of humanitarian organisations, especially the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), in Gaza and the West Bank.
He explained that the International Commission of Inquiry had disproved the Israeli allegations against UNRWA employees, and called for protection for workers in humanitarian agencies and organisations in the occupied Palestinian territories from Israeli violations.
‘Prepare to face consequences’: Yemen warns UK after attacks on Sanaa
The Cradle | April 30, 2025
The Yemeni government issued a statement on 30 April warning the UK against its continued participation in the US campaign of deadly airstrikes against Yemen that began last month.
“In a display of typical British arrogance, the UK Ministry of Defense announced participation in a joint military operation with the US enemy against our country, targeting areas south of Sanaa … The Government affirms that the British enemy must carefully consider the consequences of its involvement and be prepared to face the repercussions,” the Sanaa government said.
“While we pledge to respond to this unlawful and unjustified aggression, we stress that this attack is part of ongoing Anglo-American efforts to support the Israeli enemy by attempting to block Yemen’s support for Palestine – enabling the Israeli enemy to continue its genocide in Gaza,” it added.
The government statement also said Yemen will stand against the “trio of evil,” referring to the US, UK, and Israel, as well as “those who orbit around them.”
The statement came hours after the UK announced its first joint attack against Yemen with Washington since US President Donald Trump entered office this year.
The UK Defense Ministry claimed the strikes targeted a “cluster of buildings” used by the Yemeni Armed Forces (YAF) and Ansarallah movement for storing drones, adding that the attack came after “very careful planning” to avoid civilian casualties.
London played a primary role in the initial campaign against Yemen, launched in January 2024 by the former US administration of Joe Biden.
Yemeni forces targeted UK vessels in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden a number of times last year in response.
The UK announcement came after at least six US airstrikes struck the Sanaa governorate on 29 April.
Two days ago, around 70 African migrants were killed in US strikes on a detention center in Saada governorate. Dozens of others were injured.
The Interior Ministry of the Sanaa government said the shelter, located in Saada’s reserve prison, was supervised by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the Red Cross.
In response, the YAF said it targeted the USS Harry Truman in the Red Sea with missiles and drones, adding that it forced the aircraft carrier to retreat northward. It also said it targeted a “vital” Israeli site in the city of Ashkelon.
US warplanes have been launching deadly attacks against Yemen every day since 15 March, when Trump intensified the campaign that was started by the former administration last year.
The bombing campaign comes in response to Yemen’s reimposition of a ban on Israeli shipping in the Red Sea and elsewhere, as well as its renewal of drone and missile attacks on Israel after Tel Aviv restarted the war on Gaza last month.
Yemen has repeatedly targeted US aircraft carriers in response to Washington’s campaign, which has cost around $1 billion and has depleted weapons stocks, while failing to significantly impact the YAF and Ansarallah.
France using the ‘terrorism’ charge to silence criticism of crimes in Gaza: French lawyer

French political scientist Francois Burgat
MEMO | April 29, 2025
French lawyer Rafik Chekkat said today that the charge of “terrorist propaganda” is being used in France to silence those who speak out about crimes committed by Israel in Gaza.
French political scientist Francois Burgat, known for his work on the Arab world, was detained on 9 July 2024, in Aix-en-Provence on charges of “terrorist propaganda.” His arrest followed a complaint by the European Jewish Organisation (OJE) over social media posts he shared in January 2024 about Israel’s attacks on Gaza.
“The two most commonly used charges to silence those who respond to the crimes committed in Gaza are ‘terrorist propaganda’ and ‘incitement to hatred and discrimination,’” said Chekkat, one of Burgat’s lawyers and a member of the Marseille Bar Association.
“Sometimes you are prosecuted under one charge, sometimes the other, and sometimes even both simultaneously,” he added.
Burgat was released the same day he was arrested and appeared before a judge at the Aix-en-Provence Criminal Court last week.
The prosecution has requested an eight-month suspended prison sentence, a €4,000 (about $4,550) fine, and a six-month ban on posting on X.
“Despite being an expert on terrorism-related issues, he is now being prosecuted for ‘terrorist propaganda’,” Chekkat said.
The court is expected to announce the verdict in Burgat’s case on 28 May.
Chekkat argued that Burgat’s case is part of a broader pattern of cracking down on criticism of Israel’s actions in Gaza.
The law regarding “terrorist propaganda”, he explained, was originally designed to combat terrorist organisations’ recruitment efforts in online environments but is now “being used to suppress dissenting voices on the issue of Palestine.”
“This is just the visible tip of the oppressive iceberg. That is to say, not only are publicly known figures involved here, but also many lesser-known individuals,” he said.
“Sometimes activists, and sometimes people not affiliated with any group — even ordinary individuals — have been questioned, prosecuted, and some have even been convicted of terrorist propaganda,” he added.
UNRWA details harrowing abuse of Gaza aid workers in Israeli detention
Al Mayadeen | April 29, 2025
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, has accused the Israeli military of abusing over 50 of its staff members detained during the war on Gaza.
According to UNRWA head Philippe Lazzarini, the detained individuals, including teachers, doctors, and social workers, were subjected to harsh treatment while in Israeli custody. Lazzarini stated on X that the staff reported being beaten, humiliated, and even used as human shields.
“Since the start of the war in October 2023, over 50 UNRWA staff among them teachers, doctors, social workers, have been detained and abused,” Lazzarini wrote. “They have been treated in the most shocking and inhumane way.”
Testimonies reveal torture, forced confessions
Sharing testimony from one of the released workers, Lazzarini highlighted the severity of the mistreatment.
“I wished for death to end this nightmare I was living through,” the staff member reportedly said. According to the accounts collected by UNRWA, detainees faced sleep deprivation, humiliation, threats against themselves and their families, dog attacks, and forced confessions under duress.
Lazzarini described the testimonies as “harrowing and outrageous,” adding to concerns about the treatment of Palestinian detainees during the ongoing Israeli war.
The reported abuse of humanitarian workers further complicates the already dire situation in Gaza, where aid agencies have been struggling to deliver assistance amid ongoing Israeli bombardments and blockades.
International reactions and ICJ proceedings
The broader humanitarian crisis in Gaza is under increased international scrutiny. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) is currently hearing arguments from dozens of nations and organizations regarding “Israel’s” humanitarian obligations to Palestinians.
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) began a week-long series of hearings on Monday to examine “Israel’s” humanitarian obligations toward Palestinians, as the Gaza Strip endures over 50 days under a total blockade that has halted the entry of vital aid.
The ICJ hearings on Gaza started with a submission from Palestinian representatives, followed by arguments from 38 countries, including the United States, China, France, Russia, and Saudi Arabia.
The League of Arab States, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, and the African Union are also expected to present their positions before the 15-judge panel.
These proceedings stem from a December resolution by the UN General Assembly, led by Norway and passed with broad support, calling on the court to urgently issue an advisory opinion on “Israel’s” legal responsibilities under international law.
The United Nations has asked the court to clarify “Israel’s” obligations to facilitate the unimpeded delivery of humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza, in coordination with UN agencies, international organizations, and third-party states. This comes as the Gaza humanitarian crisis continues to worsen, with growing concerns over famine risk due to the blockade.
It is worth noting that “Israel” maintains strict control over all international aid entering the Gaza Strip, home to 2.4 million Palestinians. Aid deliveries were fully halted on March 2, just before the ceasefire collapsed, ending a temporary reduction in hostilities after 15 months of conflict.
The ongoing Israeli aid blockade has pushed Gaza to the brink of catastrophe, with supplies rapidly depleting and Palestinian civilians facing severe restrictions on access to essential resources.
Screaming soldiers and open revolt: How one video unmasked Israel’s internal power struggle
By Ramzy Baroud | MEMO | April 29, 2025
An apparently strange choice was made by a correspondent from Israel’s Channel 12 when, on 22 April, he decided to release one of the most humiliating videos of a relatively large number of Israeli soldiers coming under attack by a single Palestinian fighter. As soldiers screamed and stumbled down the stairs of a building in Khan Yunis chaos erupted: some fell over each other, others hid behind a concrete wall, and some even fired erratically, endangering their own colleagues.
This begs a serious question: given the Israeli media’s frequent adherence to strict, often unreasonable, military censorship, what prompted the decision to release such a damaging portrayal of its own soldiers?
The answer lies in the open war between the Israeli political institution, represented by the leadership of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the one hand, and the rest of the country on the other. The “rest of the country” may seem to be an elusive concept, but it is not. Currently, Netanyahu is at war with the military institution, the internal intelligence agency Shin Bet, the judiciary, much of the media and the majority of Israelis who want the war to end and Israeli captives to be released.
This explains the unprecedented and open criticism by former top Israeli officials who are accusing Netanyahu of being a threat, not only to the Israeli military and Israeli society, but also to the future of Israel itself.
On 21 April, the head of Shin Bet, Ronen Bar, breached every protocol when he presented Israel’s Supreme Court with two documents, one of which was revealed to the public. According to Israeli media, in the unclassified affidavit, Bar stated that he was fired by the prime minister “because of his refusal to meet those expectations of loyalty,” particularly “regarding investigations into the prime minister’s aides” and for “his refusal to help Netanyahu avoid testifying in his criminal trial.”
Bar’s comments represented a fundamental historical shift in how Israel’s power players treat extremely sensitive security matters.
They were also, essentially, a call for the overthrow of Netanyahu.
A former head of Shin Bet, Nadav Argaman, has been equally vocal, although he was the first to speak about Netanyahu’s transgressions, suggesting clear coordination between the various elements of Israel’s notorious and powerful intelligence agencies. “If the prime minister acts unlawfully, I will say everything I know,” he told Channel 12 last month.
The coordination runs deeper, with former Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, who, along with Netanyahu, is wanted by the International Criminal Court, going on his own rampage on 23 April. Aside from the direct attacks on Netanyahu, calling his policy a “moral disgrace”, Gallant seems to have disparaged the Israeli military itself by revealing that, last August, Israel faked pictures of an alleged Hamas tunnel in order to block a ceasefire agreement.
The Israeli government used this specific episode as its rationale for maintaining control over the Philadelphi Corridor in southern Gaza, a justification that emerged around the same time as the deeply embarrassing video of Israeli soldiers running in terror from a lone Palestinian combatant. The layers of humiliation continued to accumulate.
While Gallant’s actions may discredit the military and his own leadership, his primary aim appears to be to have an impact on Netanyahu, who many Israelis believe is prolonging the Gaza war for personal political gain.
Israel’s actual war losses are another key point. One of the occupation state’s historically best-kept secrets is its losses in fighting against Arab armies or resistance groups.
Its casualties in the current war on Gaza were also supposed to be a well-kept secret, except that they aren’t.
Although the Israeli army has tried to minimise its death toll since the start of the war on 7 October, 2023, it has faced many leaks, some initiated by the military itself. The aim? To put pressure on Netanyahu to end the war, especially in light of new information that at least half of Israel’s military reserves are refusing to return to the battlefield.
Interestingly, it was Eyal Zamir — Netanyahu’s hand-picked replacement for Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi — who surprised everyone in a speech shortly after his appointment in February. Zamir revealed that 5,942 Israeli families had “joined the list of bereaved families” in 2024. He had already committed 2025 to be “a year of war”, but now seems less inclined to escalate the war beyond Israel’s ability to sustain it.
The war between Israel’s political, military and intelligence elites has never been so ugly, let alone open, as if both sides have reached the conclusion that their survival — and the survival of Israel itself — is dependent on defeating the other camps.
After some reluctance and a relatively careful choice of words, Gallant has now joined the chorus of a powerful group of ex-officials who want to see Netanyahu out of power by any means necessary, including civil disobedience.
This internal conflict among Israel’s elite marks a departure from its long-cultivated image. For decades, Israel has presented itself as a beacon of democracy and civilisation amidst what it portrayed as its less cultured neighbours. However, the Gaza genocide has shattered this false narrative.
Consequently, the current infighting among the architects of this Israeli fantasy now offers an unprecedented opportunity to uncover deeper truths, not only about the ongoing war in Gaza, but also about Israel’s history, from its establishment on the land of historic Palestine to the ongoing genocide, nearly eight decades later.
“The masters of the universe are Jews,” former US Senator declares in Israel
By Wyatt Reed – The Grayzone – April 28, 2025
Ex-GOP Senator and Republican Jewish Coalition chair Norm Coleman proclaimed with a straight face that Jews control the world during a Jerusalem conference featuring a speech by Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu.
Former US Senator Norm Coleman has raised eyebrows by declaring that “the masters of the universe are Jews” at a major Zionist lobby event in Jerusalem. In an address to a summit hosted by the Adelson-funded Jewish News Syndicate on April 27, Coleman pointed to various major technology firms founded by Jews, suggesting the shared religion of the companies’ creators should translate into a greater zeal for censoring criticism of Israel.
“And when you think about it, the Masters of the Universe are Jews! We’ve got Altman at OpenAI, we’ve got [Facebook founder Mark] Zuckerberg, we’ve got [Google founder] Sergey Brin, we’ve got a group across the board. Jan Koum, y’know, founded WhatsApp. It’s us.”
The remarks came as Coleman lamented that pro-Israel propagandists are “losing the digital war” in battle for the hearts and minds of younger generations, and called for more stringent censorship of pro-Palestinian speech.
“A majority or Gen Z have an unfavorable impression of Israel. And, my friends, I think the reason for that is that we’re losing the digital war. They’re getting their information from TikTok, and… and we’re losing that war.”

As numerous polls show young Americans are increasingly skeptical of Israel – with a recent survey showing 71% of Democrats and 50% of Republicans under age 49 now hold an unfavorable view of Israel – establishment politicians have consistently blamed TikTok’s algorithm for the decline in enthusiasm for genocide. In February, the top Democrat on the Senate intelligence committee, Mark Warner, revealed that the bill forcing China’s ByteDance to sell TikTok was motivated by the visibility of pro-Palestine content on the app.
For Coleman, though, it appears this wasn’t enough. “We have to figure out a way to win the digital battle,” he told summit attendees. “We’ve got to get our digital sneakers on, so that the truth can prevail over the lies. And when we do that, the future of Israel will be stronger because a majority of all Americans will support Israel. We’ll make that happen, we have to make it happen. Thank you, Baruch hashem.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took the stage directly after Coleman’s speech, highlighting Tel Aviv’s interest in the event, which was billed as the “Inaugural JNS Policy Summit to address Israel’s pressing strategic issues.”
An archetypal neoconservative, Coleman started off as an anti-war activist who once worked as a roadie for Jethro Tull, and was suspended from Hofstra University for leading a sit-in. “I went to Woodstock, and I inhaled!” he boasted at the JNS summit. After first taking office as a member of the Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party, Coleman wound up narrowly losing his Senate seat to Al Franken in 2008 as a Republican.
In addition to serving as the national chairman of the Republican Jewish Coalition and founder of the Congressional Leadership Fund super PAC, Coleman now works as a top lobbyist for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
New investigation reveals UK firm supplying engines for Israeli drones
Al Mayadeen | April 28, 2025
A report published by Declassified UK on Monday revealed that a British company is supplying engines for “Israel’s” newest line of military drones, raising fresh concerns about UK complicity in the Gaza genocide.
RCV Engines, a Dorset-based engineering firm specializing in multi-fuel internal combustion engines, has been identified as the manufacturer of the propulsion system for the APUS 25 drone, developed by Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), an Israeli government-owned weapons manufacturer. The APUS 25 is marketed as a “revolutionary long-endurance TactiQuad” and designed to “redefine tactical drone operations for ground and maritime forces worldwide,” according to IAI.
The drone’s advanced design enables it to perform “offensive operations,” including deploying weapons systems, thereby offering “a new dimension to tactical air support in combat scenarios,” the company notes. IAI promotional materials reveal the drone’s engine bearing the RCV Engines logo, confirming the British firm’s involvement. Until now, RCV’s ties to the Israeli defense sector had not been made public.
Drone Complicity
The revelation that UK-made components are being integrated into weaponized drones comes amid heightened scrutiny over British arms sales to “Israel.” Footage emerging from Gaza in recent months shows Israeli quadcopters dropping bombs and firing on civilians. Retired surgeon Nizam Mamode recounted before British MPs in November: “The drones would come down and pick off civilians – children.” He added, “We [were] operating on children who would say: ‘I was lying on the ground after a bomb had dropped and this quadcopter came down and hovered over me and shot me.'”
Moreover, Israeli drones have reportedly been used to broadcast the sound of crying babies to lure Palestinians into open spaces, where they were then targeted.
Despite recent announcements by UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy suspending around 30 arms export licences to “Israel,” it appears that engines produced by RCV Engines may have evaded these restrictions. In 2022, RCV stated that it had been granted an export licence exemption for global shipments, meaning its drone engines were “removed from the export control list” in Britain. On its LinkedIn page, the company credited this exemption with enabling faster shipping, fewer bureaucratic hurdles, and increased global sales.
The political support RCV received was also acknowledged publicly. The company thanked local Conservative MP Sir Christopher Chope for his role in lobbying for the licence exemption. RCV said, “The success that we have seen since 2022, which is directly linked to the export control status, has meant RCV has been steadily growing.”
Export Loophole
Emily Apple from the Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) criticized the situation, saying: “Labour urgently needs to reverse this decision and close this loophole. It’s beyond time it ended its complicity in genocide and prioritised Palestinian lives over the profits of the arms industry.” She added, “Removing RCV Engines from export licence controls is utterly outrageous. This makes a mockery of Labour’s already flimsy decision to suspend just 30 export licences to Israel and appears to create a massive loophole in the export licensing regulations.”
When contacted, the Department for Business and Trade declined to comment on individual companies, and RCV Engines also did not respond.
Meanwhile, IAI continues to develop more advanced models, such as the APUS 60, aiming for greater endurance and payload capacity, although it remains unclear if RCV will continue supplying engines for future versions.
Read more: Britain helping ‘Israel’s’ nuclear force: Declassified UK
Google DeepMind workers push for unionization over company’s Israeli ties
Press TV – April 27, 2025
Employees at Google DeepMind’s London office have initiated efforts to unionize in response to the tech giant’s decision to provide its artificial intelligence (AI) technology to defense entities and maintain connections with the Israeli regime.
Reports on Saturday indicated that around 300 workers at DeepMind, the AI division of Google in London, have sought membership with the Communication Workers Union in recent weeks.
DeepMind employees’ decision began when Google updated its approach to AI technology and dropped its militarization clause from its ethical pledge (AI Principles).
In its previous version of AI Principles, Google had included a commitment clause to not pursue AI technologies that “cause or are likely to cause overall harm”, especially in weapons and surveillance that violate “internationally accepted norms.”
The revised version of AI Principles, states that the company pursues AI “responsibly” and in line with “widely accepted principles of international law and human rights”, but does not include the previous language about weapons and surveillance.
The tension between DeepMind and its parent company further increased when a whistle-blower revealed that Israel had been using their technology to generate targets for assassinations and attacks in Gaza, where close to 51,500 Palestinians have been killed so far.
After the revelation about the Israeli regime’s use of DeepMind AI in the Gaza war, several employees quit the company.
“We’re putting two and two together and think the technology we’re developing is being used in the [Gaza war],” said one engineer involved in the unionization effort.
“This is basically cutting-edge AI that we’re providing to an ongoing [war]. People don’t want their work used like this,” he added.
The effort to unionize needs to be recognized by the company through a vote among DeepMind employees in the UK. The company has around 2,000 staff in London.
If the unionization effort succeeds, the employees will demand that Google nullify its military contracts.
If Google still decides to sell its technologies for military purposes, then the employees have the right to go on strike.
“What I hope and what people who are active are hoping is that we stay away from any military contracts,” said one of the organizers of the unionization effort.
The Israeli regime already has a $1.2bn cloud computing agreement with Google and Amazon, called Project Nimbus.

