Sounds of screams and barks: Israel's aural terror of Gaza at night

Audio drones are also heavily employed east of Rafah and Khan Yunis in southern Gaza during ground incursions, according to several testimonies gathered by Al Majalla.

Shorouq Al-Ayla, a 30-year-old woman displaced from Gaza City to a tent in central Gaza, initially fled with her family to an apartment in Rafah when the war broke out in October 2023.

Drones at the window

However, in early May, amid growing concerns of an imminent Israeli ground offensive on the city, they found themselves woken at night. "Suddenly, we saw quadcopters at the windows," she recalled. "We could see them, hear them, and even smell their engines because they were so close."

The drones followed everyone in the house, from one window to window, for three consecutive hours, forcing them to turn off the lights and avoid using their phones to prevent even the faintest light from showing.

"I had to go to the bathroom. The moment I turned the bathroom light on, a drone came to the window. I turned the light off, but it stayed there until I left and moved to the room, where it followed and stopped at that window. It was a terrifying night."

The next day, the family fled, moving westward to Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, believing a tent would be safer. However, they were once more haunted by the sounds of the quadcopters: barking dogs, meowing cats, crying children. "It is psychologically terrifying, especially since all the sounds come after midnight," she said.

Over Bureij camp

Everyone in Gaza now senses danger as soon as they hear the approach of a quadcopter, regardless of its purpose.

Ashraf Mohammed, 26, from the Bureij camp, said he had seen Israeli quadcopters used for reconnaissance, locating homes, and even killings.

"About four months ago, during the army's ground incursion into Bureij, we began to witness their use in emitting various sounds like barking dogs, crying children, and the pleas of women at very high volumes," he said.

Like Shorouq Al-Ayla, he said the audio quadcopters usually projected sounds after midnight, when people had settled and movement had ceased. "The night hours are the scariest of the war," he said. "That's why people mostly stay in their homes or tents."

He said: "Most children are asleep after a long day filled with the sounds of shelling and the daily chores imposed on us by the war, like fetching water."

Using specific sounds

Mohammed said the sounds that the Israelis had chosen had been considered with Gazan society in mind and were designed to provoke specific emotions in Gazans.

"We are a closely-knit society, so when you hear a child crying in the middle of the night, or a woman screaming for help, you instinctively want to run outside to see what's happening and who needs help. If there's any shelling or gunfire and people are injured, everyone rushes out to assist, even with the danger of dark."

The Israeli army has exploited these societal traits, he said, as part of its psychological warfare on Gaza. This tactic was used either to prepare specific homes for shelling, clear entire neighbourhoods before a large-scale ground incursion, or even to target men on the back of a false pretext.

"The occupation forces emitted the sounds of crying children and women's pleas, and when young men moved through the alleys of the camp and onto the street to check if something serious was happening, they were confronted by the quadcopters," he said.

"These drones either dropped small, highly explosive bombs on them, to kill them, or fired exploding bullets that resulted in the amputation of many young men's limbs."

Over Nuseirat camp

Osama Ibrahim, 36, of Nuseirat camp, said: "The most annoying sound for me is the barking of dogs at night. We've heard them for months. Dogs around here respond to the barking. This can go on for more than half an hour."

Like the accounts from Bureij, Ibrahim said the Israeli army deliberately provoked residents, then fired at them when movement was detected, resulting in the deaths of many young men without reason or threat. "The army is fighting us with all its means and methods, killing indiscriminately without justification or excuse."

Dogs are also an emotive sound in Gaza, where stray dogs have long been feared, but during the current conflict, the situation has worsened, according to Mirhan Abdel Hamid, a 29-year-old woman displaced from northern Gaza to its western areas.

"I never liked dogs, especially strays, but during the war, as we're living in a tent on the street, it became even more distressing. A dog might sleep at the entrance of your tent at night, or try to get inside. I'm afraid of them and their sounds."

Learning to distinguish

She said that, over time, residents began to tell the difference between a projected bark and a real one. "I'm still scared of barking, but after repeated incidents and realising they were coming from drones, we've started to pay more attention," she explained.

"A real dog's bark has varying degrees of sound, but a recorded bark is just a repetition of a short segment. The same goes for women's pleas and children's cries. It's always the same repeated segment, so we've learned to distinguish."

Iman Qdeih, 38, from eastern Khan Yunis who has been displaced five times in ten months due to repeated Israeli ground incursions, said she was terrified of barking dogs, especially after the first ground incursion, when bodies were left in the streets and eaten by the starving strays.

"The dogs here became more ferocious after eating human bodies," she explained. "Their aggression scares me, even in broad daylight, so how could I not be terrified when hearing their loud, close barking at night?"

Qdeih can now tell the different between an audio drone and a real dog, but the initial bark from the audio is still enough to panic her, and even though they are on a loop, the sounds still trigger a fear response, a feeling that danger is approaching.

"Even though I'm sure they're recorded sounds, I still feel as if a pack of dogs is coming to attack our house," she says. "I can't shake off that feeling or thought." You get the feeling that, for the Israelis, that is point.