“Children Shot by Quadcopters”: UNICEF Spokesperson in Gaza

In a chilling account from the frontlines of the Gaza conflict, a UNICEF spokesperson has claimed that children are being targeted and shot by armed quadcopter drones, raising grave concerns about violations of international humanitarian law and the protection of civilians in war zones.

In a conversation with Mehdi Hasan, from Zeteo, UNICEF spokesperson James Elder detailed the brutal conditions confronting Gaza’s children. He said that as he visited Al-Aqsa Hospital in central Gaza (Deir al-Balah), he encountered a room full of wounded children, “four or five children, all who’d been shot by quadcopters.”

During remarks delivered in Geneva, Elder painted a broader picture of Gaza as a war zone in which “nowhere is safe”—whether in the north, south, or what are termed “safe zones.” He described scenes of mothers with bleeding children, children tracking drones overhead, and more injuries arriving daily at hospitals already overburdened.

“The question I am asked everywhere in Gaza City – from women, from the elderly, and from children – is: ‘Where can I go that will be safe’?  And the answer remains the same after almost two years: Nowhere. Nowhere is safe in the Gaza strip.”
– James Elder, UNICEF Global Spokesperson

The claim that children are being shot by drone-mounted weaponry is not made in a vacuum. Medical workers and human rights observers have documented instances in Gaza in which quadcopter drones are believed to have functioned as armed, low-flying sniper platforms—hovering, engaging, and firing upon civilians.

According to doctors interviewed by The Guardian, some children arrived at Gaza hospitals with bullet wounds that suggested precision targeting, and witnesses say advanced drones have been used to pick off individuals from the air.

There are also reports of quadcopter drones ordering evacuation warnings and then conducting air attacks, often in densely populated areas. Other accounts assert that displaced children and those sheltering in “safe zones” have been hit by stray or targeted fire from aerial platforms.

©TNPP