Ababeel1 shortcut "A1" (Arabic: أبابيل1) the first Palestinian reconnaissance unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), armed drone, made in Gaza by al-Qassam Brigades Industries, the military wing of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas).
Contents
Types
- A1A reconnaissance aircraft.
- A1B with attacking-throwing tasks.
- A1C with attacking-suicide tasks .
Background
Mohamed Zouari a Tunisian engineer and one of The members of Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades manufactured Ababeel1. Originally from, Mohamed Zouari was one of the followers of the Islamic political party Ennahdha, then he left Tunisia in 1991 to Syria in order to escape the wave of repression of the Zine El Abidine Ben Ali regime.
With a knowledge in aeronautics and in the design of drones, he joined the ranks of the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the Hamas armed wing, where he supervised his unmanned aircraft manufacturing program Ababeel1 used in 2014 during the Gaza war of 2014.
Assassination of the maker of Ababeel1
On December 15, 2016, while he was in his car about to drive it, a truck blocked him and two killers riddled him with twenty bullets including three fatal ones in the chest. The killers used pistols fitted with silencers. After the assassination, some hackers accessed the surveillance system of a restaurant near the place of the assassination and erased the contents of the video recordings.
On December 17, 2016, Hamas, through a statement on its website, confirmed Mohamed Zouari's membership in the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades and the role he played in the development of the Ababil drone. Hamas also accused Israel of being behind the assassination and promised to avenge it.
The Tunisian Government from its side announced that the Tunisian State will prosecute, both nationally and abroad, any person involved in this assassination.
Asked about the assassination, Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman said that Israel would continue to defend its interests and that Mohamed Zouari was certainly not a person nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.