In the first strike of the “Al-Aqsa Flood” battle, the Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Hamas movement, used 35 attack drones, including bombers and suicide bombers, directed at striking the towers and fortifications of the Israeli occupation army, or targeting the positions of its soldiers.
This was the largest field participation in what became known as the “drones force” in the confrontations of the Palestinian resistance with the Israeli army.
When and how did this project start? Where did he reach?
Nidal Farhat’s dream
The exact date on which the Al-Qassam Brigades decided to launch the project to produce combat drones is not known, but the date of February 26, 2003, was the first official announcement of this project.
At that time, the Al-Qassam Brigades mourned its leader, Nidal Farhat, and 5 of his companions, who were killed in a planned assassination, according to the brigades’ statement, as Israeli intelligence booby-trapped parts of a plane they were preparing.
According to the testimonies of Nidal Farhat’s contemporaries, the drone was his next dream after completing the manufacturing process of the first locally made Palestinian missile, called “Qassam 1.”
His mother, Maryam Farhat, “Nidal’s mother,” said – in her testimony about her last conversation with Nidal – that he was seeking to complete the drone, load it with 20 kilograms of explosives, and drop it on the Israeli settlements inside the Gaza Strip.
Nearly two years after his assassination, in 2005, the Hamas Movement’s Military Action Abroad Department launched the “Unmanned Aerial Vehicles” project, and began diligent and rapid steps on the ground to develop the first models, which were led by the Tunisian engineer Muhammad Al-Zawari, and the engineer Mahmoud Fares from Gaza, who received Specialized courses in drone science in several countries.
By 2008, engineer Al-Zouari and his team were able to produce 30 drones for the Al-Qassam Brigades, bearing the name “Ababil,” and work on the project continued, amid declared Israeli expectations that the brigades would seek to develop and possess drone technologies.
Engineers on the road
In 2010, engineer Mahmoud Fares returned to Gaza, and a number of brigade engineers joined him there to continue working on the “drone” project, including Hazem Al-Khatib, Dhafer Al-Shawa, Sami Radwan, and Jum’a Al-Tahla, in addition to the project leader, engineer Muhammad Al-Zawari, who entered Gaza several times to continue the work. From the field.
Engineer Mahmoud Fares, according to what was published by the Phalange, took over the leadership of the drone production project inside Gaza, after the Battle of Shale Stones in 2012, and work continued on several models, the first of which was the “Ababil” drone, which was announced to enter service during the Battle of “The Eating Storm” in 2012. 2014, and the Phalange announced that the plane was able to carry out monitoring and reconnaissance missions over the Israeli Ministry of Defense building in Tel Aviv.
On December 17, 2016, the Al-Qassam Brigades mourned its Tunisian martyr, Muhammad Al-Zawari, who was assassinated by the Israeli Mossad in Tunisia, and revealed for the first time that he was one of the brigades’ leaders and supervisors of the Al-Qassam Ababil aircraft project.
Al-Zawari’s assassination represented a heavy loss for the drone project, but the experiences that the brigade’s engineers gained during the years of successive work with him enabled them to continue working on the project and develop new models of drones.
Al-Zawari and Shehab
During the Battle of Saif al-Quds in 2021, the Al-Qassam Brigades announced the introduction of two new drones into service, the “Zawari” and “Shehab,” and broadcast video clips and military data, revealing the use of the Shihab drone to carry out suicide attacks on a chemical factory in the “Gaza envelope.” A gathering of soldiers and vehicles at the Kissufim site.
On the first anniversary of the Saif al-Quds Battle in 2022, the Al-Qassam Brigades released a series of documentary films, narrating the biography of a number of its leaders who rose in the battle, including the leaders of the drone project, and broadcast scenes that were shown for the first time about the stages of manufacturing and field testing of the aircraft.
At the time, the Brigades revealed the Shihab suicide plane, the manufacture of which was supervised by the two martyred communications engineers, Hazem Al-Khatib and Dhafer Al-Shawa, revealing the direct relationship that brought them together with the Commander-in-Chief of the Qassam, Muhammad Al-Deif, and his deputy, Ahmed Al-Jaabari, and their direct follow-up of the project closely.
The brigades also revealed scenes of the “Al-Zawari” drone, and showed scenes in several documentaries about the efforts of the martyred engineers who led the work on the drone project, including Mahmoud Fares in the movie “Knight of the Sky.”
The Brigades also presented the role of Jordanian engineer Juma al-Tahla in the project, revealing that he joined the ranks of the Qassam forces in 2007 and joined the manufacturing department, where he trained and worked alongside the martyr Muhammad al-Zawari, and participated alongside him in developing the first versions of drones.
What does Al-Qassam’s drone arsenal include today?
Ababil A1 drone (A1)
It was revealed by the Al-Qassam Brigades for the first time during the Battle of the “Eating Storm” in 2014, when it was used in a monitoring operation above the Israeli Ministry of Defense building.
“Ababil” is the name that the martyr Nidal Farhat intended to give to the first version of the drone that he was about to produce.
“Ababil” includes 3 versions:
- Ababil A1A with reconnaissance missions.
- Ababil “A1B” with attack-throwing missions.
- Ababil A1C with attack-suicide missions.
The visitors’ march
A drone for monitoring and direct targeting with portable bombs. It appeared for the first time during a military parade organized by the Al-Qassam Brigades in 2015, and entered combat service during the Battle of “Saif Al-Quds.”
The plane bore the name of Tunisian engineer Mohammed Al-Zawari, commander of the drone development project in the Al-Qassam Brigades, of which the Qassam Brigades used 35 aircraft in the opening strike of the “Al-Aqsa Flood” battle.
Shehab march
A suicide drone, which entered service for the first time in the “Saif al-Quds” battle, was used to strike the chemical factory in the “Nir Oz” settlement, east of Khan Yunis, and to target a gathering of occupation soldiers at the “Kissufim” military site, and gas platforms at sea off Gaza City.