The Ministry of Defence has announced that unarmed surveillance flights over the Middle East will be carried out in search of Hamas hostage locations. The flights will aid in gathering intelligence on possible locations of hostages. It has been reported that five British nationals are missing, but no information has been provided about how many of them might be held captive by Hamas. The UK government has declared that the safety of British nationals is their top priority.
To achieve this, the Ministry of Defence will conduct surveillance flights over the eastern Mediterranean in air space over Israel and Gaza. The aircraft will be unarmed and their sole task will be to locate the hostages. As such, only information relating to hostage rescue will be passed to the relevant authorities. The Royal Air Force use Shadow R1s for intelligence gathering, which will be used in the surveillance flights.
Officials from the Ministry of Defence explained that information on the potential locations of hostages would be shared with Israel. It is thought that over 130 captives are held in Gaza. The Pentagon has also announced that they have deployed unarmed UAV drones over Gaza to aid in hostage-recovery efforts. They are also “providing advice and assistance to support our Israeli partner.”
The IDF hit over 400 Hamas targets on the first day after fighting resumed on Friday, following a week-long truce in Gaza. Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza confirmed that 193 people have died in the latest Israeli attacks. It was added that over 15,200 people have died in the war in Gaza, which was sparked by Hamas’s attack on Israel on 7 October that killed at least 1,2000 people
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