West Bank Herders Say Settler Drones Track Them, Broadcast Threats, and Preceded Fatal Shootings

Rabie Abu Na'im says he can still hear the sound of the drone that hovered over his Bedouin community east of Ramallah, most mornings, for three years.

Abu Na'im lived in Al-Khalayel, a herding community that settlers eventually emptied through what he describes as a sustained campaign of surveillance and attack. He told The New Arab that drones tracked residents from the moment they left their homes each day.

"When herders left their homes in the morning, the drones would pursue and shadow them; if they approached certain areas, settlers would gather to attack and drive them away."

According to Abu Na'im's account, the drones grew more aggressive over time, eventually monitoring residents inside their homes. He said some were later fitted with audio devices broadcasting insults and warnings to leave, and that drones were used to drop tear gas on the community. These specific details rest on his testimony alone; The New Arab did not publish drone footage, audio recordings, or independent confirmation of the equipment described.

Abu Na'im also linked drone surveillance to a fatal incident in Al-Mughayyir, saying a drone tracked a flock of sheep before settlers moved in to steal the livestock, and that the Israeli army killed two young men during the confrontation that followed. Occupation Watch has not independently verified the drone's role in that killing.

In Mikhmas, shepherd Mohammed Abu Siyam described a similar pattern from February. He said settlers stole livestock from the village, and when a group of young men, including his 19-year-old son Nasrallah, went to search for the herd, settlers launched a drone to follow them.

"Using the drone, the settlers monitored my son and the others. An armed group of them lay in wait for the youths' arrival and immediately opened fire, killing Nasrallah and wounding other young men."

Abu Siyam said a drone still shadows him while he grazes sheep. As with the Al-Mughayyir account, the claim that a drone was used to set up the ambush rests on the father's testimony; no footage or independent account of the shooting has been made public.

The New Arab reports that Israeli settlement councils have recently begun distributing drones to settlers for photography and monitoring around outposts, and that Israeli funding has previously equipped outposts with drones as part of broader security packages. Neither claim is tied to a named document or official statement in the reporting.

For herding communities that depend on daily movement between homes, grazing land and water sources, aerial surveillance lets settlers track exactly when residents leave and which routes livestock use, information witnesses say is used to block access to land or stage confrontations before Palestinians arrive.