Suicide drones are now accounting for most of the kills of Hamas terrorists in Gaza in a military revolution, the IDF disclosed on Wednesday. The IDF said that the "Atalef" (bat) suicide drone is now widely available within the ground forces, without any need to ask for special help from the air force, in order to kill Hamas terrorists.
Moreover, the IDF stated that, at the platoon level, which involves a couple of dozen soldiers, each platoon now has its own surveillance and intelligence collection drones. Some of the drones are specifically tasked to enter new structures to spy out for Hamas boobytraps or tunnels. Other drones are used to look over a nearby hill to ensure there is no ambush from Hamas before the soldiers advance.There are now 14 IDF schools training 20,000 soldiers for handling these drones.
If before the war, drones were still mostly an air force matter and providing drones directly full-time to ground forces was still a special event and remained often only at the battalion commander level (drone use for a group of roughly 250 soldiers), now there are many more drones at even the smallest levels of the ground forces. (Source)
