"The shelling isn't far from us at all," says Fatma Daama. "The shelling is on our street, around us."
In a series of voice messages recorded for NPR in her apartment on Oct. 9, the 37-year-old Palestinian in Jabalia describes Israeli tanks closing in, as her city and other parts of north Gaza were besieged by Israeli forces.
In one message, she's interrupted by the sound of four quick gunshots.
"Oh, hear that?" she says casually. "That's the quadcopter. It's here most of the time. If I go to the door to get better cell service, the quadcopter starts shooting at me and I have to go back inside. It's very dangerous."
The quadcopter is what many Palestinians in the Gaza Strip call a small sniper drone with a gun attached that can fire single bullets. Over the past five months, NPR has collected accounts about sniper drones from more than a dozen eyewitnesses in Gaza, including Daama. Many say they've seen the drones shoot — and kill — civilians.
Adeeb Shaqfa, 55, lost his 32-year-old son Saher in such an attack. He says he and his son were walking in Rafah, in southern Gaza, on May 31. It was a quiet afternoon and there was no fighting nearby, he says, when a sniper drone appeared in the sky and shot Saher, who was walking up ahead.
"Two men rushed to help him, but the quadcopter also shot them," Shaqfa says. "The quadcopter kept shooting everyone who tried to help."
He says two older women nearby were shot in the head. Shaqfa tried to help them, but they were already dead. One of the men who tried to help his son was killed too, he says.
TVNL Comment: This outrageous war is a war crime. Israel is targeting unarmed civilians in its ongoing genocide. They will succeed. No one helps. No one cares.
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