The Drone Assassination of Samer Abu Daqqa
Assessment
On December 15, 2023, Al Jazeera journalist and Belgian national Samer Abu Daqqa (also written Samer Abudaqa) was struck by an Israeli drone strike likely twice and subsequently died as ambulances were prevented from reaching Samer for over 5 hours. The first strike likely was intended for a targeted school and the second reported strike was directed at the wounded Samer.
Ibrahim Qanan, an al-Ghad reporter described the attack as direct targeting. “The first missile hit Samer and he tried to crawl for 200 metres, but the Israeli warplanes hit him again and directly, so he became a martyr and his body was cut into pieces.“ His colleague Wael Dahdouh who was also struck in the attack said after he got into an ambulance, "I asked them to go back to where I was because Samer was still there and he was screaming and he was calling for help."
Israel employs a few drones and UAVs in operation. Based on Qanan's description of a warplane we might assume this refers to a UAV though a small armed drone is possible. If this drone returned for a second strike on the injured reporter, it possibly points to an IDF armed drone squadron. One such publicized group is Squadron 161 known as "Black Snake" that are known to operate Elbit Systems Hermes-450. Such armed operations in dense populated areas as reported by an anonymized Major, "are controlled from a two-man station in the base, with a mission commander and an operator seated side-by-side watching the data transmitted by the UAV."^1
The Major goes on to add, "We are capable of the real-time sensor-to-shooter operations, and this is enabled by the accurate intelligence gathered by the UAVs payload combined with additional details that we receive from other sources." The Major stressed that once a mission commander approves a mission, "there is a man in the loop all the time so that the mission can be aborted," aborted if there is danger to civilians and presumably humanitarian workers and visibly outfitted journalists. Other specifications and characteristics of the Hermes-450 drone are it's payload capacity of 180kg and it's loud internal combustion engine.
Hyperwars is seeking verification and tips on the type of drone(s) involved, ordinances and whether sniper drones prevented rescue. While there remains a possibility that other data sources lead to the strike, we are first seeking to narrow the nature of drones involved.