Israeli Weapons Firm Rafael Uses Gaza Killing in Marketing Campaign

Date: 14 July 2025 - 21:57

News ID: ۱۴۱۳۸۳

WEST BANK (Dispatches) – The Zionist regime’s weapons company Rafael released a promotional video showing its drone system, Spike Firefly, tracking and killing a person in Gaza.
The video, posted across the company’s social media platforms, shows the miniature kamikaze drone hovering over a rubble strewn neighborhood in the Palestinian enclave, identifying somebody walking down the street and then targeting them.
The post is titled “Spike Firefly in urban warfare” and is accompanied by dramatic, military-style music.
According to the on-screen titles, the drone “identifies the target,” “tracks it,” “and neutralizes the threat”.
The video shows the Firefly silently hovering before diving after the person, who sees the drone and runs for cover. There is then an explosion, which “neutralizes the threat”.
It is unclear whether the targeted individual is a Palestinian fighter or not. They do not appear to be armed. They are walking along the road alone and do not appear to be posing a threat to anyone.
Open-source analyst Anno Nemo geolocated the footage in Rafael’s post to the al-Tawam area of northern Gaza.
“Based on 2 Google Earth satellite images the video appears to have been taken between June 4, 2024 and December 1, 2024,” Anno Nemo said, adding that possible changes are visible in the area on Sentinel satellite imagery from November 2024.
“We mark two years since SPIKE FIREFLY was first operationally deployed - ushering in a new era of precision for the tactical fighting forces,” Rafael said in a post accompanying the video on its X account. “Tested. Trusted. Tactical.”
The Rafael drone was designed to be used by ground forces in dense urban areas where “situational awareness is limited, the enemy is fighting from behind cover and the effectiveness of fire support elements is reduced by the close proximity of non-combatants”.
None of those conditions appear to apply to the video posted by Rafael. The drone is designed to be controlled in real time by a single soldier.
Middle East Eye reached out to Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, which is owned by the Israeli regime, for comment on the video but did not receive a response by time of publication.
Israeli companies have marketed technology and weapons used on the Palestinian populations of the occupied West Bank and Gaza as “battlefield tested”, a tactic that can be seen in Rafael’s video.
Rafael was founded in 1948 along with the occupying Israeli regime as the Science Corps. It is now probably best known for developing Iron Dome, the Israeli integrated air system, and for its guided missiles.