“The Hamas military wing, the al-Qassam Brigades, announced Monday that it had launched drones from Gaza for ‘special missions’ over Israel, including overflights of military installations.” Thus these drone flights are intended to gather information that would be used to plan the next jihad rocket attacks.
“Israel shoots down Hamas drone,” by William Booth, Washington Post, July 14, 2014:
GAZA CITY — Israel shot down a drone that flew from the Gaza Strip and was circling a city in southern Israel on Monday morning, the first reported deployment of unmanned aircraft by the Palestinian militant group Hamas in this conflict and a potential new threat for Israel.
The Hamas drone was shot down by a U.S.-supplied Patriot missile as it flew over the southern city of Ashdod. An Israeli military spokesman said a search was underway for the debris.
The Hamas military wing, the al-Qassam Brigades, announced Monday that it had launched drones from Gaza for “special missions” over Israel, including overflights of military installations.
The Hamas group claimed its engineers had manufactured three types of unmanned aircraft, including those that could be armed or used as a guided missile, a kind of suicide drone. The claims of armed drones or overflights of Israeli military installations could not be confirmed.
On Sunday, tens of thousands of panicked residents fled their homes in the northern Gaza Strip after the Israeli military dropped leaflets from the sky warning those who stayed behind that they were risking their lives because a large, intense operation was imminent.