Jews in Teaneck, N.J., donated the drone that first identified a group of terrorists in Gaza that included Yahya Sinwar, the senior Hamas leader, in the Gaza Strip. After the Israeli Defense Forces fired on the group, Sinwar fled into a building, where a different drone captured his final moments, The Daily Wire reported.
Chaim Meisels, an American reservist in the Israeli Defense Forces, told the publication that he was honored as a guest at a Teaneck synagogue. The family hosting him asked how it could assist in the war effort, and he said that his unit could use more equipment, including drones.
Following the Hamas terror attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, Meisels said that the nearly 300,000 reservists who flew to Israel to fight found that the IDF did not have helmets, vests or equipment for them.
“Jews in America pitched in and donated so we could do our job,” he said to The Daily Wire.
A member of the Teaneck community, who asked not to be named, and members of her synagogue, the rabbi’s discretionary fund and donors from another state gave about $10,000.
One of the drones that they donated—a DJI Mavic equipped with thermal imaging—helped Meisels’ unit, the 828th Bislamach Brigade, pinpoint Sinwar’s location.
“The excitement we all felt when we heard Sinwar was dead and that the drone we donated helped locate him was unreal,” the donor told The Daily Wire.
