Pentagon Admits to Deploying Unarmed Drones for Surveillance in Gaza

The United States has publicly acknowledged for the first time that it has been flying unarmed surveillance drones over Gaza. According to Pentagon spokesman Brig Gen Pat Ryder, these drones have been deployed in support of hostage recovery efforts. The flights began after an attack by Hamas on October 7, as stated in the Pentagon's brief announcement. The confirmation comes after journalists noticed the presence of unmanned aerial vehicles on flight-tracking websites. The Pentagon's statement on Friday further revealed that the US is not only conducting unarmed UAV flights over Gaza but also providing advice and assistance to support Israeli efforts in hostage recovery. The MQ-9 Reapers, typically operated by American special forces, were seen circling Gaza on Flightradar24, a publicly accessible flight-tracking website. Although primarily used for surveillance, the Reaper drones have previously been employed to conduct airstrikes in Afghanistan. The US military officials, who remained unnamed, emphasized that the drones were not assisting in coordinating Israeli military actions in and around Gaza, but rather providing information related to hostage recovery to Israeli authorities. Aside from the surveillance drones, the US Navy recently announced that it had fired lethal munitions from an unmanned surface vehicle in the Arabian Sea. A statement by the Navy highlighted this as the first instance of combat munitions being fired from a USV in the Middle East, further enhancing American military capabilities in the region. The US Navy has also dispatched two battleships to the eastern Mediterranean to prevent the escalation of conflict between Hamas and Israel. In response, the leader of Lebanon’s Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, warned against the use of these ships to attack the militant group.