Israel’s exploding robots still terrorise Gaza neighbourhoods

Gaza City – The ceasefire between Israel and Hamas brought thousands of people back to their homes in Gaza City, to assess the damage, see what can be salvaged, and start to rebuild.

In Jabalia, Sheikh Radwan, Abu Iskandar and beyond, people returned to flattened neighbourhoods, and to the knowledge that, still among the rubble, some of the explosive robots that had caused it sat, silent and undetonated.

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People aren’t sure where all the undetonated robots lurk, nor do they know what to do if they encounter one, adding to the anguish and uncertainty that clouds this homecoming.

Exploding robots

The “robots” had become a common fear in northern Gaza since the Israeli army first used them on Jabalia refugee camp in May 2024.

Their deployment hit an “unprecedented pace” leading up to the October ceasefire, the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor noted in a report on September 1, adding that they were used to destroy “about 300 residential units daily in Gaza City and Jabalia”.

The robots are armoured carriers that Israeli soldiers would load with explosives, then drag into place using armoured bulldozers.

Once the soldiers had retreated, they would remotely detonate the booby-trapped vehicle, destroying everything around it.

Not much is known about the payload – or if it was ever consistent – Gaza City Civil Defence spokesman Mahmoud Basal told Al Jazeera.

However, their destructive capacity was apparent, Bassal said, describing the robots’ “kill radius” which he said extended as far as 500 metres (550 yards).

The damage to infrastructure, he added, was “staggering”.

Palestinians continue returning north on the second day of the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, with those arriving in Gaza City’s Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood finding widespread devastation after the Israeli army’s withdrawal, Gaza City, October 11 [Abdalrahman T. A. Abusalama/ Anadolu Agency]

‘Nothing remained’

Last November, Sharif Shadi realised he had not yet learned all the sounds of war. The sounds of air attacks, artillery, and rockets were etched into his memory from countless Israeli wars on Gaza since childhood.

But during Israel’s brutal ground assault on northern Gaza, the 22-year-old from Jabalia refugee camp heard a new, more horrifying sound.

It was the sound of the robots.

Shortly after, the devices explode, swallowing entire neighbourhoods.

“The explosive robot enters a complete residential block … and moments later, everything is reduced into bits of rubble,” Shadi explains of the Israeli military’s latest weapon.

On that November morning, Shadi was in the street, going about the daunting daily quest of securing essentials for himself and his family of eight other members, when he saw a robot being dragged towards his neighbourhood by a D10 bulldozer.

“They entered the block, and I started running away.

“I ran at least 100 metres (110 yards), and suddenly found myself under rubble, the explosion was that strong. Those who were closer, nothing remained of them – not even remains or body parts.”

Days later, he lost a friend.

“My friend was unwell and needed to go to Kamal Adwan Hospital. I accompanied him, and on the way, we saw a robot coming in. In a moment of sheer panic and chaos, my friend and I ran in different directions.

“The blast was immense and rocked the earth beneath my feet. When I went back to that same spot where I had last seen my friend … I found no trace of him. His body was completely vapourised.”

According to Euro-Med’s report, these devices’ indiscriminate, widespread destruction puts them “under the category of prohibited arms, and their use in populated areas constitutes both a war crime and a crime against humanity”.

Neither the Israeli military nor the government have publically acknowledged the use of these weapons, although some Israeli media outlets have reported on their use.

The Israeli military has not responded to a request for comment from Al Jazeera.

Toxic aftermath, respiratory crisis

The effect doesn’t end with the explosion, as Dr Mohammed Abu Afash, director of the Palestinian Medical Relief Society in Gaza, explains.

The “explosive robots” leave behind toxic vapours and gases, he says, “a powerful foul smell” that lingers and causes people serious respiratory problems.

“Repeated cases of suffocation and breathing difficulties have appeared, and citizens continue to suffer from these symptoms due to inhaling toxic gases believed to contain lead and dangerous chemicals,” he adds.

Um Ahmed al-Dreimli, who lives in Sabra in Gaza City, described the smell as “a mixture of gunpowder and burned metal that clung to our lungs, making our breathing difficult long after the explosion”.

The 50-year-old mother of three – her eldest is 10-year-old Ahmed – was with her family in her damaged childhood home when she heard neighbours’ screams from the street, alerting her to the danger.

The explosions came shortly after, with Israel giving no warning or time to flee.

The sound of the explosion was different, Um Ahmed said.

It had a heavy metallic rumble, not like “the sounds of hovering jets or drones, nor the screech of approaching missiles, which we’ve gotten used to … and it felt as if the ground was being pulled from under our feet”, she recalls.

Rafah
A drone view shows Palestinian houses and buildings lying in ruins, following a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, January 22, 2025 [Mohammed Salem/Reuters]

A prelude to invasion

Mohammed Abu Tamous from the Civil Defence and Ambulance media department has seen explosive robots multiple times during fieldwork.

“When planning to invade a specific area, the army uses these robots to level buildings and erase landmarks in preparation for advancing vehicles,” he adds.

He says they have been used across northern Gaza, including Jabalia camp, Beit Hanoon, Tal az-Zaatar, Beit Lahiya, Tuffah neighbourhood, Shujayea, Zeitoun, Sabra, Sheikh Radwan, Abu Iskandar, and Jabalia downtown.

There is no whistle of an incoming rocket or air raid siren – just the explosion, followed by huge plumes of white smoke.

“Air strikes on an apartment or building might affect two or three neighbouring houses, but the robot destroys a complete row of 10 adjacent houses,” Abu Tamous says.

He added that Israeli soldiers use these explosive robots in crowded residential areas that they have surrounded and cut off, so they can prevent ambulance and civil defence teams from entering to help people.

Even when rescue teams are allowed in, often the damage is so severe that they can no longer figure out landmarks or where streets begin or end.

During the January ceasefire, he added, the team found an unexploded robot in Tal el-Zaatar and was able to examine its contents.

“There was a yellow, paste-like substance in a container that we couldn’t identify, but it has stood out from all the explosives we’ve seen,” he says.

Now that people are returning to Gaza City, Abu Tamous is worried because he has seen unexploded robots, and he and his team can do very little about them.

“All we can do is tape off a perimeter and warn people not to approach, but there’s nothing else in our hands,” he said. “We do tell the specialised bomb disposal unit, but they would need more equipment to be brought into Gaza to deal with this.”

Ukraine’s Zelenskyy to meet Trump as Russia focuses on Donetsk offensive

Russia is increasing air attacks to compensate for its failure to crack Ukrainian defences on the ground, according to Kyiv.

“Russia has started a new wave of air terror against Ukraine – against our cities and civilian infrastructure,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told NATO’s 71st Parliamentary Assembly on October 13.

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Zelenskyy spoke days after Russia launched an overnight strike against Ukraine’s energy infrastructure involving 465 drones and 19 missiles.

A boy with a bicycle looks on near buildings damaged during a Russian drone and missile strike in the town of Brovary, outside of Kyiv, October 10, 2025 [Alina Smutko/Reuters]

Ukraine said it downed 405 of the drones and 15 missiles. The remainder deprived three-quarters of a million Ukrainians of electricity for the day, wounded 20 people and killed a seven-year-old boy.

Zelenskyy said cold autumn weather had reduced the effectiveness of Ukraine’s air defences by 20-30 percent, claiming Russia “deliberately waited” for this.

On Wednesday, Russian drones again knocked out power in some parts of Ukraine and struck a thermal power plant, according to Naftogaz, Ukraine’s gas utility.

Russia ‘increased the number of air attack means’

On the battlefront, too, Russia was turning to the air.

“In a month, the enemy has increased the number of air attack means used by 1.3 times,” wrote Ukrainian commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrskii on his Telegram channel on Saturday.

Syrskii generally refers to Russian first-person view (FPV) drones and air-launched glide bombs, which Russia uses at the front in addition to artillery and multiple launch rocket systems.

But Russia was increasingly using its long-range Shahed drones – the type it deploys against cities – to hit targets at the front as well, said the Kyiv Independent after speaking with analysts.

Shaheds are more precise than glide bombs, and Russia was “likely looking to conserve KAB guided aerial bombs where possible to prepare for a long war ahead”, said the newspaper.

An Orthodox priest blesses Russian conscripts called up for military service during a ceremony marking the departure for garrisons from a recruitment centre in Saint Petersburg, Russia, October 15, 2025. REUTERS/Anton Vaganov     TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY
An Orthodox priest blesses Russian conscripts called up for military service during a ceremony marking the departure for garrisons from a recruitment centre in Saint Petersburg, Russia, October 15, 2025 [Anton Vaganov/Reuters]

Russia’s tactics prompted a flurry of consultations with allies.

On the day of the massive air strike, Zelenskyy said he spoke with United States President Donald Trump about the damage to Ukraine’s energy sector and what the nation needs to protect it. During the week, he also spoke with the leaders of Canada, Germany, the United Kingdom and France, and the European Union’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas.

Zelenskyy said he is short of air defences and has asked allies to increase provisions to protect 203 key facilities in Ukraine.

At Wednesday’s meeting of the Defence Contact Group for Ukraine, Germany pledged 2.3 billion euros ($2.7bn) in new weapons and air defence systems, including interceptors for Patriot launchers and two more IRIS-T systems.

Poland offered electricity exports, generators and the services of a liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal to bolster Ukraine’s energy supply.

Zelenskyy dispatched Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko to the US to lay the groundwork for his meeting with Trump on Friday.

Russia’s fight for Donetsk

On the ground, Zelenskyy said this week that Russia had planned to capture the entirety of the Donetsk region this autumn. About a quarter of it remains in Ukraine’s hands.

The hammer has fallen hardest on Pokrovsk, once a city of 60,000 people. Russia has failed to take it by direct assault and by conducting an enveloping manoeuvre through Dobropillia to its north.

Syrskii said a Ukrainian counteroffensive at Dobropillia had retaken 181sq km (70sq miles) of territory since the end of August.

The Dobropillia counteroffensive caused 12,000 Russian casualties, including 7,000 deaths, and upset Russia’s plans to conquer Donetsk this autumn, Zelenskyy claimed.

Al Jazeera was unable to independently verify the death toll estimated by Ukraine.

Ukraine’s operation “disrupted all the plans that the Russians communicated to the American side, claiming they would supposedly occupy the Donbas – most of it – specifically by November. Initially, they said September, then pushed the deadline to November”, said Zelenskyy.

Russia’s determination to capture Donetsk was evident in the fact that it had returned to high-casualty mechanised assaults on October 6, 9 and 13, said the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, having largely stopped reinforced company-sized mechanised assaults in late 2024.

All three assaults came in the Dobropillia direction and were defeated with high losses to men and armour.

“The Russians are now tasked with urgently taking Pokrovsk – at any cost,” Zelenskyy said, and some analysts suggested they may be swinging to the south of Pokrovsk instead.

Russia has not been wholly without success. During the week of October 9-15, it claimed to have seized four villages in Donetsk, and settlements in Kharkiv and Dnipropetrovsk.

In Kharkiv, Zelenskyy said, Ukrainian forces were pushing Russian troops out of some positions in the city of Kupiansk, in whose northwestern outskirts they have taken positions.

Despite this, Ukrainian authorities on Wednesday evacuated hundreds of families from 27 villages in the Kupiansk area, citing the security situation.

Ukraine’s strikes and Tomahawks

Ukraine continued a successful campaign to choke off Russian fuel production.

Its drones struck Lukoil’s Korobkovsky Gas Processing Plant in the Volgograd region of Russia on October 9.

“The plant is part of the fuel supply system for the domestic market of the Russian Federation, as well as for export,” said Andriy Kovalenko, head of Ukraine’s Center for Countering Disinformation.

On Monday, Ukraine struck the oil depot at the port of Feodosia in Crimea, confirmed the region’s occupation head, Sergey Aksyonov. It is used to supply Russian occupying troops in Crimea, Zaporizhia and Kharkiv with fuel by rail.

Russian opposition news outlet Astra said the strikes damaged 11 fuel tanks, including eight 5,000-10,000-tonne diesel tanks and two petrol tanks.

Geolocated footage confirmed the attack, as well as strikes on two electricity substations in Feodosia and Simferopol, also in Crimea.

“This is absolutely fair that Ukraine strikes back with precise, targeted attacks,” said Zelenskyy.

The Financial Times reported on Sunday that Ukraine has not been conducting these operations alone.

Several US and Ukrainian officials told the daily that Washington has been providing intelligence for the targeting of Russian refineries for months.

INTERACTIVE - What are Tomahawk missiles - September 30, 2025-1759225571
(Al Jazeera)

“The shift came after a phone call between Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy in July, when the FT reported the US president asked whether Ukraine could strike Moscow if Washington provided long-range weapons,” wrote the paper.

The sources said the US was involved in target selection, timing and route planning to evade Russian air defences.

Ukraine has so far mostly used its domestically produced drones, and Zelenskyy last month asked Trump to provide US Tomahawk cruise missiles, with a range of up to 2,500km (1,550 miles)

The issue is to be among those discussed between Trump and Zelenskyy on Friday.

Russia’s deputy chairman of its National Security Council warned against the deployment of Tomahawks, which are nuclear-capable.

UN urges ‘lasting’ ceasefire after Pakistan-Afghanistan clashes kill dozens

The United Nations has called on the warring Afghan and Pakistani military forces to permanently end hostilities, after a 48-hour ceasefire took effect following days of skirmishes that killed dozens and injured more than 100 others.

In a statement issued on Thursday, the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) welcomed the announcement of a ceasefire and called on all parties “to bring a lasting end to hostilities to protect civilians and prevent further loss of life”.

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It also urged both Afghanistan and Pakistan to comply with their obligations under international law “to prevent” more civilian casualties.

The recent deadly clashes between the two neighbouring countries and former allies erupted last week after Pakistan struck targets inside Afghanistan, including in the capital Kabul.

Pakistan had been demanding that the Afghan Taliban administration act to rein in armed groups who had stepped up attacks in Pakistan, saying they operated from havens in Afghanistan.

In retaliation for the attacks, Afghan forces attacked Pakistani soldiers, accusing them of violating their territory.

The Taliban has accused the Pakistani military of spreading misinformation about Afghanistan, provoking border tensions, and sheltering ISIL (ISIS)-linked groups to undermine the country’s stability and sovereignty.

On Thursday, Karimullah Zubair Agha, director of public health in Afghanistan’s Spin Boldak, said clashes along the border areas killed 40 civilians just shortly before a truce took effect on Wednesday.

“We have 170 wounded and 40 killed, all civilians,” the official told the AFP news agency.

The fighting along the volatile, contested frontier has been described as the worst violence between the two nations since the Taliban seized power in Kabul in 2021 after the United States’s withdrawal.

In its latest statement on Thursday, UNAMA said it received “credible reports of significant civilian casualties” including women and children, just shortly before the ceasefire.

Most of the casualties were reportedly from the Spin Boldak district of Kandahar, UNAMA said, confirming at least 17 civilians killed and as many as 346 others injured.

Meanwhile, Pakistan’s military has claimed that they have foiled an attempt by suspected Pakistan Taliban fighters to take advantage of the ceasefire and launch an attack on government forces in the border province of Ķhyber Pakhtunkhawa.

The military claimed that dozens of Pakistan Taliban fighters, know by the acronym TTP, were killed in the attack.

Perilous deportation for Afghan refugees?

As the fragile ceasefire continues to hold on Thursday, Pakistan has ordered the closure of Afghan refugee camps within its border.

Al Jazeera’s Kamal Hyder, reporting from Pakistan’s Torkham Crossing just across the border from Afghanistan, said that the UNHCR have expressed “deep concern” about the decision that could strip Afghans of their refugee status.

“People say they have been living here for decades, and their livelihoods are at stake,” Hyder said, adding that Afghans are demanding a “dignified return” back to their home country.

Hyder noted that there are an estimated two million Afghan refugees who fled to Pakistan during previous wars, and ordering them to leave within the next seven days could trigger an “enormous” refugee problem, and put many “in a very difficult predicament”.

For now, residents along the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan are hoping that the ceasefire will be extended beyond its original 48-hour timeframe, but the situation on the ground makes it difficult to see how that can be achieved, Hyder noted.

On World Food Day, Israel continues to restrict aid into Gaza

Despite a ceasefire deal with Israel, Palestinians across the devastated Gaza Strip continue to go hungry as food supplies remain critically low and aid fails to reach those who need it most.

As per the ceasefire agreement, Israel was supposed to allow 600 humanitarian aid trucks into Gaza per day. However, Israel has since reduced the limit to 300 trucks per day, citing delays in retrieving bodies of Israeli captives buried under the rubble by Israeli attacks.

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According to the UN2720 Monitoring and Tracking Dashboard, which monitors humanitarian aid being offloaded, collected, delivered and intercepted on its way into Gaza, from October 10-16, only 216 trucks have reached their intended destinations inside Gaza.

According to truck drivers, aid deliveries are facing significant delays, with Israeli inspections taking much longer than expected.

Satellite images captured by Planet Labs on October 14 and 15 show a large number of trucks queuing on the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing and heading towards the Kerem Abu Salem crossing.

Rafah crossing [Planet Labs PBC/Sanad]
Karem Abu Salem crossing
Karem Abu Salem crossing [Planet Labs PBC/Sanad]

‘Palestinians want food’

While some food aid has trickled in over the past few days, medical equipment, therapeutic nutrition and medicines are still in extremely short supply, despite being desperately needed by the most impoverished, particularly malnourished children.

Reporting from Deir el-Balah, in central Gaza, Al Jazeera’s Hind Khoudary said some commercial trucks have entered Gaza over the past few days, but most Palestinians do not have the ability to buy any of the items they are bringing in as they have spent all of their savings in the past two years.

So far, what has arrived in the trucks includes “wheat, rice, sugar, oil, fuel and cooking gas”, she said.

While food distribution points are expected to open for parcels and other humanitarian aid, people in Gaza have yet to receive them. “Palestinians want food, they want shelter, they want medicine,” Khoudary said.

She added that even 600 trucks a day would be insufficient to meet the needs of Gaza’s entire population.

Palestinians gather to receive food from a charity kitchen, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip, October 7, 2025. REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Palestinians gather to receive food from a charity kitchen, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip, on October 7, 2025 [Mahmoud Issa/Reuters]

Food ‘is not a bargaining chip’

The UN humanitarian chief, Tom Fletcher, has urged Israel to open more border crossings for humanitarian aid.

“We need more crossings open and a genuine, practical, problem-solving approach to removing remaining obstacles. Throughout this crisis, we have insisted that withholding aid from civilians is not a bargaining chip. Facilitation of aid is a legal obligation,” Fletcher said.

Since the ceasefire began, 137 World Food Programme trucks have entered Gaza as of October 14, delivering supplies to bakeries and supporting nutrition and food distribution programmes.

Israeli authorities continue to block UNRWA

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) – the primary and largest organisation providing aid to Palestinians – has faced significant restrictions imposed by Israel.

The agency, which was responsible for delivering food, medical care, education and emergency assistance, says it has enough food aid in warehouses in Jordan and Egypt to supply the people in Gaza for three months.

INTERACTIVE - UNRWA at a glance- jan22-2025-1738139841
(Al Jazeera)

This includes food parcels for 1.1 million people and flour for 2.1 million, and shelter supplies sufficient for up to 1.3 million individuals.

However, despite the ceasefire, Israeli authorities are continuing to block them from entering.

Malnutrition among children

As of October 12, at least 463 people, including 157 children, have died from starvation amid Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip. Nearly one in four children suffers from severe acute malnutrition.

After prolonged starvation, food must be reintroduced carefully under medical supervision to avoid re-feeding syndrome, a potentially fatal condition in which sudden intake of nutrients causes dangerous shifts in electrolytes, affecting the heart, nerves and muscles. A larger supply of nutritional aid, given safely, could dramatically save lives.

Interactive_WorldFoodDay_October16_2025-01-1760613556
(Al Jazeera)

According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), 90 percent of children in Gaza less than two years of age consume fewer than two food groups each day, which doesn’t include protein-rich foods.

At least 290,000 children between the ages of six months and 5 years, and 150,000 pregnant and breastfeeding women require feeding and micronutrient supplies.

In addition to this, there are an estimated 132,000 cases of children less than the age of five, and 55,000 pregnant and breastfeeding women projected to be suffering from acute malnutrition by June 2026, if immediate food aid isn’t made available.

Interactive_WorldFoodDay_October16_2025-01-1760613556
(Al Jazeera)