Israeli arms industry uses Gaza strip as their testing laboratory for new weapons development and to sell them as battle proven weapons

An outbreak of violence in the ongoing Israeli–Palestinian conflict commenced on 10 May 2021, though disturbances took place earlier, and continued until a ceasefire came into effect on 21 May. It was marked by protests and rioting, police riot control, rocket attacks on Israel by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and Israeli airstrikes targeting the Gaza Strip. The crisis was triggered on 6 May, when Palestinians began protests in East Jerusalem over an anticipated decision of the Supreme Court of Israel on the eviction of six Palestinian families in Sheikh Jarrah.

 

On the afternoon of 10 May, Hamas gave Israel an ultimatum to withdraw security forces from the Temple Mount complex and Sheikh Jarrah by 6 p.m. or otherwise there would be consequences. When the ultimatum expired without a response, both Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad launched rockets. Some rockets hit residences and a school.  The conflict once again led to highly disproportionate number of casualties between the two sides (roughly one Israeli death to 20 Palestinians, this time), a significantly higher infrastructural damage in Gaza than in Israeli territory, and the use of the airspace – and not the sea or land – as domain of combat.

 

Israel began a campaign of airstrikes against Gaza; by 16 May, some 950 targeted attacks had demolished, completely or partially: 18 buildings including four high-rise towers, 40 schools and four hospitals, and also struck the al-Shati refugee camp. In addition, at least 19 medical facilities have been damaged or destroyed by Israeli bombardment. The al-Jalaa Highrise, housing offices of the Associated Press and Al Jazeera as well as 60 condominiums, was destroyed on 15 May, prompting outcry. By 17 May, the United Nations estimated that Israel had demolished 94 buildings in Gaza, comprising 461 housing and commercial units.

 

During the fighting, some Palestinian rockets fell short and landed in the Gaza Strip. According to Israel, approximately 640 did so, however many missiles were long-range missiles. The fact that several missiles originating from Gaza reached Tel Aviv indicates that at least some of those missiles were bigger in size (even if not necessarily using different technology) and are now capable of reaching more distant areas.

 

The Israeli Iron Dome system, in place to intercept missiles and other devices launched into Israeli territory, has in the past exhibited an interception success rate of about 90%. Yet, this time a much bigger number of missiles reached Israeli territory, and a much wider area was subject to hits. Hamas also attempted to overwhelm the Iron Dome system with an intense barrage of missiles. This meant that, even at a normal success rate, the system was unable to cope with a vast number of missiles launched within very short intervals of time.

 

At least six drones were intercepted by the Israelis. One of them was intercepted by the Iron Dome system, which is something that happened for the first time. Some other drones were intercepted by technology systems that are classified by the Israel Defence Forces. This highlights how drones and counter-drone systems are becoming important strategic technologies in wars.  The fact that Palestinian factions are using unmanned systems of different levels of sophistication also implies that drone systems are readily available and employed by both states and non-state forces.

 

Over the years, Israel has used diverse weapons to kill more than 400,000 Palestinian civilians and injure or cripple two to three times as many, including tens of thousands of women and children. Israeli arms industry is often accused of turning the West Bank and Gaza strip into their laboratory to test new weapons which are then sold to the international market as battle-proven weapons. These include tank fire, rockets, or cluster or phosphorus bombs.

 

The attack on Gaza the 2014 bled Israel to showcase some of its newest weapons. It was reported, a new version of this pilotless warplane – the Hermes-900 – made its combat debut when Israel attacked Gaza during the summer.  Eyewitness accounts from doctors working in Gaza’s hospitals indicate that Israel dropped experimental weapons. The weapons are believed to include DIME (dense inert metal explosives), which causes horrific injuries by burning at high temperatures. Al-Haq, the Palestinian rights group, has stated that DIME was carried in Hellfire missiles that were dropped from Israeli drones. Israel allocates more than 5 percent of gross domestic product to the military. That means Israel spends a higher proportion of its national income on the military than even the US, the world’s only superpower

 

The high-velocity tear gas canister has been heavily tested in Bilin, Skunk water is a putrid-smelling liquid that is sprayed at protesters in order to get them to disperse. In East Jerusalem, Israel tested American black sponge bullets which caused huge damage and there are dozens of Palestinians that have lost their eyes and other organs of their body.The black sponge bullets are manufactured by Combined Tactical Systems, a Pennsylvania-based firm which also supplies Israel with tear gas.

 

“The laboratory of the occupied territories is where things can be fine-tuned, they can be tested, they can be retested,” said Neve Gordon, a politics professor at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. “They can say, ‘Hey this was used by the IDF [Israel’s military], this must be good.’ And that helps the marketing of the goods.”

 

However Uzi Rubin, a founder of Arrow, an Israeli anti-ballistic missiles program, is now a researcher at the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies in Bar-Ilan University near Tel Aviv defends he way Israel has marketed its weapons as “battle proven.” “It is legitimate because the Vietnam War sold a lot of weapons,” he said. “War usually sells weapons. But this is not to say that Israel is seeking war in order to sell weapons.”