UK sends surveillance drones to Gaza

The drones will be unarmed, do not have a combat role, and will be tasked solely to locate hostages.

By Vered Weiss, World Israel News

The British Defense Ministry said it will carry out non-combat drone flights over Gaza to locate hostages, according to a Sky News report on Sunday.

The ministry explained the drones, “will be unarmed, do not have a combat role, and will be tasked solely to locate hostages.”

“Only information relating to hostage rescue will be passed to the relevant authorities responsible for hostage rescue,” they said.

The drones will operate over the Eastern Mediterranean and the open air space between Israel and Gaza.

“The safety of British nationals is our utmost priority,” the Defense Ministry said.

This news comes after the British government announced it was sending the HMS Diamond, a Type 45 destroyer to promote security and ensure safe passage of sea vessels and uninterrupted trade.

For over a month, US surveillance drones have been deployed over Gaza to collect information about the remaining hostages in Gaza.

During the pause in fighting, 84 Israelis and 24 foreign nationals were released from Gaza.

Following last week’s hostage releases, there are 136 captives remaining in Gaza, 114 men, 20 women, and 2 children. Ten are 75 and older. Eleven of the hostages are foreign nationals, and eight of these are from Thailand.

At a press conference in Tel Aviv on Saturday night, the Israeli Prime Minister read the names of released hostages and discussed the ending of the ceasefire.

Netanyahu reflected on the difficulty of the hostage negotiations, “I asked myself: How do you hold discussions with the devil, a person who has no value for human life? But I was convinced that there was a way to rescue people…”