The UAVs are being equipped with mace in preparation for efforts to disperse crowds and "potential rioters," allowing Israeli police to avoid having to make physical contact with them, the news outlet said. Keeping police from engaging with Palestinian protesters may not be the worst idea, given that Israeli forces have used lethal force at previous protests.
Each drone can carry six canisters of tear gas. The drone gassing technique was tested on protesters for the first time ever earlier this month.
According to Kobi Shabtai, who the Jerusalem Post credits with inventing the idea, "apart from the fact that this device poses no danger to the troops whatsoever, it also allows us to reach areas we couldn't reach before."
The use of tear gas in quelling civil disturbances is legal; however, the use of tear gas in warfare was banned by the Chemical Weapons Convention of 1993, to which Israel was not a signatory, but has acceded.
