Whenever there’s another round of fighting between Israel and Hamas, both sides develop/hone their defence systems. Israel often tests new weapons and then promotes them to the world as “battle-tested”.
I was interviewed by UK-outlet Middle East Eye (the article is also in French):
Antony Loewenstein, an independent journalist who was recently based in Jerusalem and is writing a book on how Israel’s occupation has gone global, pointed out that Palestine is often a testing ground for new Israeli weapons and defence equipment.
“In the recent conflict between Gaza and Israel, it seems that Hamas improved its weaponry with more accurate, long-range missiles. However, historically, many of Israel’s most sophisticated surveillance technology and weapons were first developed for use against Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza and Israeli itself,” he told MEE.
“Israeli companies still talk about ‘battle-tested’ weapons for global sale. Many of the key ‘innovators’ in this space work for Israel’s notorious cyber Unit 8200 and take this experience into the private sector, leading to techniques perfected in Palestine used and abused in global conflicts.”