The U.S. military has been flying unarmed surveillance drones over Gaza as Washington tries to gather information about American and other hostages taken by the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas, the Pentagon confirmed on Nov. 3.
Pentagon press secretary Brig. Gen. Patrick S. Ryder said in an emailed statement to Air & Space Forces Magazine that the United States has been flying unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) over Gaza after Hamas launched its brutal Oct. 7 surprise attack on Israel that killed more than 1,400 people, most of them Israeli civilians celebrating a Jewish holiday.
“In support of hostage recovery efforts, the U.S. 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,” Brig. Gen. Ryder said.
In late October, the U.S. government said 10 Americans still remain unaccounted for nearly a month after Hamas’s massacre in Israel, noting a “significant number” of those missing may be among the several hundred people taken back to Gaza as hostages.
The UAV flights carrying out surveillance missions were first spotted by online flight trackers.
“Earlier today, a drone that was tracked from a position off the coast of Crete loitered over Gaza for just under 3 hours,” aviation researcher Amelia Smith said in an Oct. 29 post on X, formerly known as Twitter. “What wasn’t visible on flight trackers were two MQ-9A Extended Range Reaper drones also in the area: REMIX22 & REMIX55 from NAS Sigonella.”
According to the U.S. Air Force, the MQ-9 Reaper UAV is employed primarily as an intelligence-collection asset. It can loiter at altitudes of around 50,000 feet for more than 27 hours, gathering intelligence with sophisticated cameras, sensors, and radars. It has a 66-foot wingspan, a Honeywell engine, can carry 3,900 pounds of fuel, and has a maximum speed of 240 knots (276 mph).
The Reaper, which entered service with the U.S. Air Force 16 years ago, can be equipped with weapons such as air-to-ground missiles.
MQ-9s have also been bought by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, NASA, the UK Royal Air Force, the Italian Air Force, the French Air Force, and the Spanish Air Force.
‘No Guarantee’
The task of recovering the hostages Hamas took during its raid on Israeli communities is made all the more challenging by the fact that many of them are possibly being held in the terrorist group’s extensive underground tunnel network. Another challenge is Hamas’s documented history of using civilians as human shields to protect their fighters.
On Nov. 3, the Biden administration revealed that efforts to secure hostages held by Hamas have posed an “incredibly intense process” with “absolutely no guarantee.”
“We are going to do all we possibly can to make sure that all the hostages of all nationalities come out of Gaza,” a senior Biden administration official told reporters in a call, noting the process is “incredibly difficult, complex, [and] time-consuming.”
He said that the two American hostages who were released last month showed what is possible, but the large number of hostages Hamas is holding makes the situation “extremely difficult.”
“In fact, when we got the two Americans out a couple of weeks ago, there was a limited pause, a kind of testing, pilot, to ensure that the hostages will be handed over to the ICRC [International Committee of the Red Cross] and then taken out of Gaza,” the official said, referring to the Oct. 20 release of a mother and daughter, who are dual citizens of the United States and Israel. “So that was something that had been worked out and it went quite well.”
However, due to the difficulty with communicating with Hamas, the official said he “can’t put a timeframe” on getting the remaining hostages released. “We are hopeful and doing everything we possibly can to get hostages out, but there’s absolutely no guarantee that it’s going to happen, or when it’s going to happen.”
Gaza City Surrounded
Israel’s military said on Nov. 3 that its forces have encircled Gaza City and have begun targeted attacks on Hamas, which has resisted the country’s ground operation with hit-and-run attacks from underground tunnels.
The city in the north of Gaza has become the focus of retaliation attacks for Israel, which has vowed to annihilate the Islamic terrorist group’s command structure.
Israel has repeatedly urged residents of Gaza’s north to evacuate to the south for greater safety, but many have been unable to leave or stay fearing continued airstrikes in the south. Israel says its strikes target Hamas and the terrorist group continues to endanger civilians by operating among them.
The military said its troops have killed numerous Hamas terrorists exiting tunnels. Footage released by the military showed soldiers and tanks advancing toward bombed-out buildings.
Meanwhile, Israeli reprisal on blockaded Gaza has killed at least 8,525 people, according to the Palestinian health ministry. However, that figure cannot be independently verified as the terrorist group has inflated casualty numbers in the past.
Reuters and Mimi Nguyen Ly contributed to this report.
