In a surprising turn of events, the United States has implemented surveillance drone flights over Gaza to search for hostages captured by Hamas during their attack on Israel on October 7th. These flights, which have been ongoing for over a week, aim to gather crucial intelligence that can aid in the location and rescue of the hostages. Two U.S. officials, choosing to remain anonymous, disclosed this information.
It is suspected that among the more than 200 hostages taken into Gaza, 10 of them may be Americans. These individuals are believed to be held captive in the extensive network of tunnels maintained by Hamas.
As Israeli forces continue their assault on Hamas, they have encircled Gaza City, which serves as the main city in the Gaza Strip. Hamas has retaliated with hit-and-run attacks from their vast underground tunnel system.
Israel’s focus has been on the northern part of Gaza City, and they have urged civilians to flee to the southern region, as their objective is to dismantle Hamas’ command structure completely.
On October 7th, Hamas launched a shocking attack into Israel, resulting in the deaths of 1,400 people, mostly civilians. This day marked the deadliest in Israel’s long history.
Since then, Israel’s retaliatory actions, consisting of relentless bombing and a ground offensive, have caused the death toll in the small Palestinian enclave of 2.3 million to reach at least 9,061, according to Gaza health authorities.
Reported by Phil Stewart and Idrees Ali; Edited by Michael Perry
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