London, United Kingdom:
The British military will carry out surveillance flights over Gaza to help locate hostages held by Hamas since the October 7 attack on Israel, the British Ministry of Defense confirmed this weekend.
According to Israeli authorities, Hamas fighters have seized about 240 Israelis and foreign hostages. About 110 have since been released, mainly during a recent weeklong ceasefire.
The Israeli army said on Friday it had resumed fighting in the besieged Palestinian territory, blaming Hamas. The resumption of fighting has frustrated hopes for a quick release of the more than 130 prisoners the Israeli army says are still being held in Gaza.
Britain has said at least 12 British nationals were killed in the October 7 attacks – with Israeli officials saying around 1,200 people were killed, mostly civilians – and another five are missing.
But it has not confirmed how many are being held by Hamas.
Israel responded to the October 7 attack by vowing to eliminate the group and the subsequent brutal air and ground campaign has killed more than 15,000 people, including mostly civilians, according to Hamas authorities governing Gaza.
London did not announce when its military surveillance flights over the area would begin, but emphasized that they would be unarmed and would focus only on recovering hostages.
“In support of ongoing hostage rescue activities, the UK Ministry of Defense will conduct surveillance flights over the Eastern Mediterranean, including operations in the airspace over Israel and Gaza,” the ministry said in a statement.
“Surveillance aircraft will be unarmed, have no combat role and will be solely tasked with locating hostages,” the ministry added.
“Only information relating to the rescue of hostages will be passed on to the relevant authorities responsible for the rescue of hostages.”
British Minister Victoria Atkins told the BBC on Sunday that the aircraft to be used were “unarmed and unmanned drones”.
Together with the United States, Britain deployed several military assets in the eastern Mediterranean in October to deter “any malign interference in the conflict.”
That included maritime patrol and surveillance aircraft and a Royal Navy task force moving to the region, the Ministry of Defense said at the time.
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