Israel may be using German-leased Heron war drones

Drones leased by the German military could be being used by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in the current war in the Middle East, according to limited information the German government has released.

The Israeli-built Heron TP drones, capable of carrying weapons, as well as target acquisition and surveillance, are two of a fleet leased by the German government in 2018 under then Chancellor Angela Merkel.

German soldiers were being trained on the two drones in Israel when Israel's war in Gaza began in October 2023. Germany then handed over the drones to the IDF "in solidarity with Israel," as a German Defense Ministry statement said at the time. The drones were part of a package of military support that German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius pledged during a summit in the immediate aftermath of the Hamas terror attack of October 7.

What was not clear in the months following was whether or not the lease contract — reported to be worth around €1 billion ($1.1 bio)  — was still being paid by Germany. A freedom of information request from April confirmed that, though the German military no longer had access to the drones, the contract with Israel was still "active."

Drone warfare in the Middle East

The Heron drones are Medium-Altitude Long Endurance (MALE) unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) capable of carrying a "variety of weapons," as manufacturer Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) puts it on its website. Called "Eitans" in Israel, they have a 26-meter (85-foot) wingspan, can stay in the air for over 30 hours, and fly at an altitude of up to 13,700 meters, which would be above commercial air traffic.

There are multiple media reports of the IDF using Heron drones both in the war in Gaza and in the military operation in southern Lebanon.

In early September, Hezbollah claimed to have intercepted a Heron drone flying into Lebanese airspace, forcing it to retreat. Drones have also become vital to the IDF strategy in the war in Gaza, and the specialist media outlet Defense News reported in January that the IDF also flew Heron TPs and other drones over Gaza in the immediate aftermath of the Hamas attack on October 7.

Drones have become a major component of warfare in recent years because they are able to fly above target sites for much longer than conventional warplanes and can gather more precise data before and after strikes. This has resulted in what critics often call the "paradox of precision": The fact that drones are capable of more precise strikes opens up the possibility of launching strikes more often because they are used in situations where planes would not be used. That, so the critics' argument goes, results in more civilian deaths overall.

"So you might aim at Hamas units, but if they're in an area where there are a lot of civilians, which in a densely-populated place like Gaza is almost always the case, there is always the very high risk that civilians will be killed and injured," said Max Mutschler, senior researcher at the Bonn International Centre for Conflict Studies (BICC).

Violating international law

The prospect that the Heron drones could be used to breach international law in the war in Gaza was raised by Nicaragua in its allegations against Germany brought before the International Court of Justice under the UN Genocide Convention earlier this year.

Defending the case, Germany's lawyers downplayed Germany's involvement: "While German soldiers trained on them, the drones were unarmed. After 7 October, German military personnel left Israel, as their security could not be guaranteed; and so their training on Israeli soil temporarily ended."

But other than the fact that it is still paying it, the German government is unwilling to reveal much more about the lease contract: Both in answers to DW requests and to parliamentary questions posed earlier this year, the Defense Ministry said that the details of the drone deal with Israel were classified. "If the question were to be answered publicly, multinational cooperation in the German Heron TP project and in particular the relationship between Israel and Germany could be strained by the disclosure of sensitive information," the ministry wrote in response to a question from the lawmakers of the opposition Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW).

Ruth Rohde, the researcher for the anti-arms trade group Shadow World Investigations UK who sent the freedom of information request to the Defense Ministry, was not satisfied with this response. Rohde also pointed out that in a response to another FOI request, the German government said it had "no expert opinions, assessments or other documents" on whether or not the drones provided by Germany were being used to violate international law in Gaza.

"Palestinians across the occupied territories are rightly terrified by the drones in their skies," Rohde told DW. "They have no way of knowing if that drone has come to surveil them or to kill them."

"I don't see it as problematic that Germany leased these drones, but I do see it as problematic that Germany then handed over these two drones to Israel," said Mutschler of the BICC. "It's understandable to take this decision just after October 7 — but now that there have been more and more reports of the violation of international humanitarian law by the Israeli operation in the Gaza Strip, including with armed drones, one really should reverse that decision."

Controversial deal

The original lease deal, made under Chancellor Angela Merkel in 2018, caused some controversy in the German parliament at the time — the then-opposition Green Party raised objections to the idea of Germany operating armed drones, and Merkel's coalition partners, the center-left Social Democrats (SPD), U-turned on a campaign promise it made in the 2017 election, when it opposed the deal.

Max Mutschler explained that there were major concerns in the public discourse at the time. "Drones had a very negative image, mainly because of the 'war on terror' carried out by the US," he told DW. "The reports at the time were very critical, as they often suggested that the deployment of drones meant accepting a lot of collateral damage."

Edited by Rina Goldenberg

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