A new weapons advertisement by Israeli arms manufacturer Rafael Advanced Defense Systems has triggered outrage across social media after the company used real footage of an unarmed Palestinian youth being killed in Gaza to promote the accuracy of its “Spike Firefly” kamikaze drone.

The video, believed to be filmed in late 2024, shows a young Palestinian man searching for food in northern Gaza City before being struck by the drone. The company shared the clip on its official account on X, celebrating what it called “proven precision” and “tactical superiority” of the Firefly drone. The campaign marked two years since the drone’s deployment, boasting of its capabilities even in GPS-denied and adverse conditions.

Palestinian and Arab users denounced the ad as “military marketing soaked in blood.” The deliberate killing of a civilian, they say, has been transformed into a sales pitch, a crime presented as a feature.

Activists described the footage as a “grotesque war crime turned commercial.” Many accused the company of normalising murder, turning the suffering of Palestinians into promotional content. “What kind of savagery celebrates the murder of a hungry man as a technical achievement?” one activist asked. Others condemned it as a “moral scandal,” emblematic of an industry that thrives on conflict and dehumanisation.

Commentators argued that the real scandal lies in how such violence is repackaged and broadcast to attract international buyers, evidence, they say, of a world where Palestinian lives are not just expendable, but marketable.

Since October 2023, Israel’s assault on Gaza has killed or injured nearly 200,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children. Entire neighbourhoods have been flattened, and more than 10,000 people remain missing. In this context, the use of a civilian’s final moments to celebrate a drone’s “success” is not just reprehensible, it is a chilling signal of how far impunity has gone.