Battle-Tested: From Gaza to the Mediterranean
The surveillance infrastructure that monitors the Mediterranean and the surveillance infrastructure used against the Palestinian population are, in significant part, the same infrastructure – developed by the same companies, marketed using the same language, and increasingly documented as serving the same function: detecting people so that someone else can intercept them.
Since 2017, Frontex has invested over €500 million in aerial surveillance of the Mediterranean. Two Israeli-made drones form the core of this system: the Heron, produced by Israel Aerospace Industries, and the Hermes 900, produced by Elbit Systems. Both companies advertise their products using the same selling point – that they are "combat-proven:" tested not in a laboratory but in Gaza. The Hermes was first used in combat during Israel's 2014 offensive on Gaza. The Heron series has been deployed throughout the occupied territories since 2008 –2009. Elbit Systems alone is reported to supply 85% of the drones used in Israel's genocide in Gaza. This is not incidental marketing. Airbus's own justification for selecting the Heron explicitly cited its performance "in war theatres and in the maintenance of public order by the Israeli Defence Forces and police forces". In other words, technology refined through use against Palestinians is exported to Europe's borders, marketed on the strength of that use, and deployed against people crossing the Mediterranean. Meanwhile, information gathered in this way flows back to the companies and systems built for use in Palestine.
What the drones do in the Mediterranean
A report by Border Forensics and Human Rights Watch used Frontex's own internal database (JORA) to document 473 cases in which Frontex aircraft detected boats carrying refugees before Libyan or Tunisian units intercepted and forced them back. Frontex's flight time over the Central Mediterranean more than doubled between 2018 and 2021, from 1,396 to 2,869 hours. The area patrolled corresponds precisely to the area where the vast majority of interceptions take place. A 2024 follow-up by the Liminal research project documented at least 240 further cases of this pattern. The mechanism is simple: Frontex spots the boat, passes the coordinates on, and a different (non-EU) actor conducts the interception. The drone does not need to fire on anyone. It only needs to find them, for someone else.
Sources
Airborne Complicity: Frontex Aerial Surveillance Enables Abuse (Human Rights Watch / Border Forensics, 2022)
Central source documenting how Frontex aerial surveillance enables Libyan and Tunisian interceptions in the Mediterranean.
Border Surveillance, Drones and Militarisation of the Mediterranean (Statewatch, 2021)
Documents the selection rationale for Heron and Hermes drones, explicitly citing their use against the Palestinian population.
The Israeli Drones Guarding Fortress Europe (New Lines Magazine, 2025)
Connects Mediterranean surveillance directly to drone use in Gaza, including the tracking of the Madleen.
Europe's Digital Fortress: How Palestine Is the Laboratory for Testing Surveillance Equipment Sold to the EU (Maldusa Project)
Broader framing of Palestine as a testing ground for technology subsequently exported to Frontex and EU border agencies.
Frontex Spends Half a Billion on Aerial Surveillance (Matthias Monroy, 2024)
Liminal research project follow-up with additional documented cases.