By Nick Mottern, Fred Bialy and Toby Blomé

Alamogordo, NM - Holloman (Drone Training) AFB -  Anti-drone activists from across the U.S. shut down the West Gate entrance here at Holloman AFB early this morning – with one arrest - for nearly an hour in the third annual "week of resistance" to the covert U.S. Drone Warfare Program.

Activists donned signs with names and ages of young Gazan children's killed, and blocked traffic while chanting "15 thousand children killed in Gaza. No drones for genocide."

One protester, Toby Blomé, was arrested after lying down on pavement in front of a stalled car when military police threatened to arrest her. She was ultimately handcuffed, detained and cited with a federal trespassing charge and released.

Holloman AFB, in southern New Mexico, is the largest drone training program in the U.S., where over 700+ drone pilots and operators graduate annually. Coming from as far away as Montana, Massachusetts, and California, the activists are holding am and pm vigils daily, April 21-25, during commuter traffic (6:30-8:30am & 3:30-5:30pm).

The convergence highlighted U.S. complicity in Israel's ongoing illegal genocide, that has now killed over 50,000 Palestinians. U.S. drones are being used, at the minimum, to help Israel identify targets.

A  recent article by UNICEF, the United Nations agency for children (March 31, 2025) revealed the  toll on the children of Gaza since October 7, 2023:

• 15,000+  children have been killed in the last 18 months.
• 34,000+ Gazan children have been injured in the last 18 months.
• Nearly one million Gazan children have been repeatedly displaced and deprived of their right to basic services.
• 100 Gazan children have been killed or injured EVERYDAY, on average, since the ceasefire ended. 
  

"The worst casualties of the ongoing genocide in Gaza are the stolen lives of the children. It is obscene, intolerable and in serious violation of numerous International and U.S. laws," said Blomé, co-coordinator of the Shut Down Drone Warfare week. 

Blomé added, "Their unique destinies will never be fulfilled:  How many future Palestinian teachers, poets, doctors, artists, nurses, carpenters, farmers will never come to be?  What responsibility does the U.S. have in this 21st century holocaust?"

Organizers promise to put their "bodies between these drones and the children of Gaza. Drone warfare must be banned."

Charles Powell, USAF veteran and longtime activist with the Albuquerque chapter of Veterans For Peace says, "Drones partnered with weapons, AI and the villains in the White House are one of the world's greatest threats."

Wednesday's action is dedicated to Fatma Hassona, a 25-year-old Palestinian photojournalist who was killed last week by an Israeli missile along with 9 members of her family.  A film about Fatma's work, Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk, was just selected to premiere at the 2025 Cannes film festival the day before her death.  Over 200 Palestinian journalists and media workers have been killed in Gaza since October 7, 2023. 

For more information:  www.ShutDownDroneWarfare.org