Israeli drone drops tear gas on Gaza protesters

Israeli border police dropped tear gas from a drone onto Palestinian protesters in Gaza today, a police spokesman told AFP, acknowledging operational deployment of new technology.

An AFP correspondent saw a drone release around 10 gas canisters as protesters on the border with Israel cursed the small craft.

A number of people were injured by the containers, which fell from a height of between 10 and 20 metres, the correspondent said.

Use of unmanned aerial vehicles to launch gas is a recent innovation, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said.

"It was used a few weeks ago around the Gaza Strip area and it is also being used today, in order to prevent protesters getting to the Gaza crossing or Gaza border," he said.

"It's a mini-drone which has the capability of flying over certain zones and certain areas and then letting go of tear gas in areas that we want to prevent protesters from reaching."