WASHINGTON – The Pentagon publicly confirmed on Friday that the US military has been flying unarmed drones over Gaza to gather intelligence on more than 200 hostages held by Palestinian militants in the strip.
“In support of hostage recovery efforts, the US is conducting unarmed UAV flights over Gaza, as well as providing advice and assistance to support our Israeli partner as they work on their hostage recovery efforts,” Pentagon press secretary USAF Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said. “These UAV flights began after the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas on Israel.”
Why it matters: The Pentagon’s acknowledgement suggests closer proximity of US military assets to the Gaza conflict than it had previously made known.
While officials have publicly said US special operations troops have been assisting the Israeli military by gathering intelligence that could help recover some of the hostages, the department has not specified any methods it was using.
