Palestinian Islamic Jihad claims owning homemade drones

5/10/2023 6:16

        The Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) movement revealed on Wednesday that it has acquired "a large number" of homemade drones and integrated them into its military operations.
        The PIJ made the announcement during a military parade marking the 36th anniversary of its foundation. Thousands of masked militants from the al-Quds Brigades, the PIJ's armed wing, marched through Gaza streets while carrying weapons, including missiles.
        The PIJ said that it now owns three kinds of drones as well as long-range missiles, which entered its "military service for the first time."
        On the previous day, the PIJ conducted a military exercise within its designated zones by launching seven heavy missiles toward the Gaza Sea.
        These launches triggered alarms in Israeli communities along the Gaza Strip border, but none of the projectiles entered Israeli territory, according to the Israeli military.
        The PIJ's military parade and exercise coincided with the entry of hundreds of settlers into the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in East Jerusalem and ongoing Israeli operations in the West Bank.
        In May 2022, the PIJ was involved in a five-day bloody military tension following an Israeli airstrike in the Gaza Strip that resulted in the deaths of three senior leaders within the PIJ, the second-largest armed Palestinian faction in Gaza.
        As a result, the joint chamber of military operations, which comprises several Palestinian factions' armed wings, including the PIJ and the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), has exchanged fire with the Israeli army, leaving 33 Palestinians and one Israeli killed, according to official statistics.