In south Lebanon, Israeli drones use the sound of crying children to lure civilians

In the southern Lebanese village of Habboush, the sound that cut through the stillness of the night was not an air strike. It was the sound of a child screaming for help.

Hashem, a paramedic in the village, heard the cries coming from an Israeli quadcopter hovering overhead.

Speaking to Middle East Eye, he said this was not an isolated incident, but part of a pattern that has become increasingly familiar to residents who remain in southern villages.

“This is not the first time these drones have flown over us and broadcast different sounds,” Hashem said.

“Yesterday, it was the sound of children screaming and pleading for help. Before that, they broadcast the sound of an ambulance...  

Another time, it was the voice of a woman calling for help. We are living through this almost every day.” 

For people who have decided to stay in their homes in south Lebanon despite Israeli occupation and daily bombardment, Israeli quadcopters have become a constant presence in the sky.

They surveil, issue warnings, broadcast messages and sounds, and turn the night into a psychological battlefield.

Residents and first responders say that beyond intimidation, Israeli forces use the distress sounds to lure people out of their homes or shelters, whether through fear, curiosity or the instinct to help.

Hashem said the first reaction to hearing such sounds is almost automatic.

“When you hear these voices in the silence of the night, your first instinct is to go outside and see what is happening,” he said. “That is what happened to me yesterday. But I quickly realized that it had to be coming from the drone, because it was impossible for there to be children in the village at that time, especially around midnight.”

He believes the aim is partly to spread fear among those who remain in the villages and push them to leave after exhausting them psychologically. But he also sees another, more immediate, purpose.

“Given that many villages are now empty of civilians, with only resistance fighters remaining in some areas, I think the goal may also be to lure someone out and identify them,” Hashem said.

The tactic is not new in Israel’s recent wars.

In Gaza, rights groups, journalists and residents have documented the use of Israeli quadcopters equipped with loudspeakers to broadcast the sounds of crying children, screaming women and calls for help in residential areas and refugee camps, particularly at night.

Residents in Gaza said the sounds sometimes led people to believe that civilians nearby were in distress, only for them to realize that the cries were coming from small drones hovering above their neighborhoods.

In Gaza, quadcopters were not only tools of surveillance. Throughout the war, doctors, residents and rights organizations reported their use above streets, homes and hospitals, where they were deployed to monitor movement, issue orders, intimidate civilians and, in some cases, open fire.

Their use with loudspeakers became part of a broader form of psychological warfare: confusing civilians, blurring the line between real and recorded sounds, and undermining one of the most basic human instincts – the impulse to respond to a cry for help.