How do drone and glide bomb attacks affect civilians in modern warfare?

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1. 1

   Civilian death and injury from airstrikes: evidence from the war in Tigray, Ethiopia.

   Population health metrics (Gebregziabher et al.)Published Mar 14, 2025Checked Oct 11, 2026

   “Almost a third of the victims (28.3%, n = 323) were children aged 60 years (5.3%, n = 61). Almost half (45.1%, n = 516) of the causalities were female including pregnant and lactating women. The Southern and Northwest zones suffered the most casualties, followed by the Southeast zones and Mekelle. The airstrikes took place predominantly in civilian areas, including marketplaces, internally displaced persons (IDP) camps, residential areas, public transportation, villages, children's playgrounds, churches, mills and hospitals, resulting in numerous casualties that disproportionately affected civilians, especially children, the elderly and women.ConclusionsCivilians suffered significant death and injury from airstrikes during hostilities in the war in Tigray, including a high proportion of women and children. The most common targets were civilian facilities including IDP camps, which the United Nations has determined to be a crime against humanity. Enhanced collaboration between health and protection stakeholders can improve support to victims from immediate post-injury care as well as rehabilitation so that they can live as healthy, dignified, and productive citizens.”

2. 2

   Patterns of war related trauma in Gaza during armed conflict: survey study of international healthcare workers.

   BMJ (Clinical research ed.) (El-Taji et al.)Published Sep 25, 2025Checked Oct 11, 2026

   “78 healthcare workers reported 23 726 trauma related injuries and 6960 injuries related to weapons. The most common traumatic injuries were burns (n=4348, 18.3%), lower limb injuries (n=4258, 17.9%), and upper limb injuries (n=3534, 14.9%). Explosive injuries accounted for most of the weapon related trauma (n=4635, 66.6%), predominantly affecting the head (n=1289, 27.8%), whereas firearm injuries disproportionately affected the lower limbs (n=526, 22.6%). Healthcare workers reported 4188 people with chronic disease across 11 domains requiring long term treatment.ConclusionHealthcare workers deployed to Gaza reported an injury phenotype defined by extensive polytrauma (≥2 anatomical regions), complex blast injuries from high yield explosives, firearm related injuries to upper and lower limbs, and severe disruption to primary care and the treatment of chronic diseases. The results provide actionable insights to tailor humanitarian response and highlight the urgent need for structured, resilient clinical surveillance systems.Editor's noteThis paper is based on research from an active war zone, where conventional research methods may be impossible to apply.”

3. 3

   A predictive, multi-source, attack-level model to quantify and characterize the injury burden and need for reconstructive surgery in Gaza.

   EClinicalMedicine (Haravu et al.)Published Feb 18, 2026Checked Oct 11, 2026

   “Injuries were greatest in air and shelling attacks, during periods of actively moving conflict, and in densely populated areas, especially in urban settings before and after they were devastated to rubble. Of those injuries, 29,000-46,000 were predicted to require reconstructive surgery, with over 80% due to explosions, and rising to 34,000-48,000 by May 2026. Model predictions were correlated with observed outcomes, with Spearman's ρ = 0.723 (p = 7.06 × 10-30) in the training set and ρ = 0.487 (p = 3.99 × 10-23) in the testing set. Event rates: 75,982 reported injuries in training period; 2523 injuries in validation period; 41,202 injuries in testing period.InterpretationTo our knowledge this is the first predictive model to forecast the injury burden in Gaza based on attack characteristics using granular multi-source data. Our findings corroborate figures published by the Gaza MoH and demonstrate that the burden will continue to grow without cessation of hostilities, further exacerbating reconstructive surgical need.FundingBass Connections grant, Duke University.”

4. 4

   Russian glide bomb attack on Zaporizhzhia kills at least 20 people

   BBC NewsPublished Oct 10, 2026Checked Oct 11, 2026

   “Volodymyr Zelensky says the attack, which left children dead, was Russia expressing its "thanks" for a US diesel deal.”

5. 5

   Application of unmanned aerial vehicles in modern battlefields and their impact on post-traumatic stress disorder in military personnel: A review.

   General psychiatry (Xue et al.)Published Aug 27, 2026Checked Oct 11, 2026

   “This review systematically examines the primary applications of UAVs on the battlefield and explores the complex relationship between UAV warfare and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among military personnel. It analyses the unique psychological stressors associated with UAV operations, such as the moral dilemmas of remote killing, the persistent tension from continuous surveillance and trauma exposure patterns that differ from those in traditional combat. By integrating recent advances in molecular biology, neuroimaging and clinical psychology, this review highlights the epidemiological characteristics, neurobiological mechanisms, clinical manifestations and treatment challenges of PTSD in both UAV operators and ground troops affected by UAV activities. By providing a comprehensive perspective on the mental health issues stemming from this novel mode of warfare, this article aims to inform the development of targeted prevention and intervention strategies to better support the psychological resilience of military personnel in the era of unmanned combat.”

6. 6

   Drone warfare (Wikipedia)

   WikipediaPublished Oct 10, 2026Checked Oct 11, 2026

   “Drone warfare is the use of military robots and unmanned systems in warfare. The unmanned systems may be remote controlled by a pilot or have varying levels of autonomy during their mission. Types of unmanned systems and platforms include unmanned combat aerial vehicles (UCAV) or weaponized commercial unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), unmanned surface vehicles (USV) or unmanned underwater vehicles (UUV), and unmanned ground vehicles (UGV). SUAVs and MAVs are man-portable UAVs and can be deployed for low-altitude, short-range support operations. Autonomous drones such as autonomous aircraft and LAWS utilize artificial intelligence or pre-programmed algorithms. As of 2019, the following nations have been identified as having operational UCAVs: China, France, Greece, India, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Italy, Pakistan, Poland, Russia, South Korea, Turkey, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Ukraine. Drones are an expendable force multiplier that may supplement–or reduce the necessity for–live personnel during operations.”