US flying surveillance drones over Gaza to search for hostages

The United States is using surveillance drones to search for the hostages taken by Hamas during its October 7 attack on Israel.

Reuters reported quoting officials that the US has been flying drones over Gaza for a week to help with hostage location efforts.

According to US officials, 10 Americans who are unaccounted for currently may be among the over 200 people taken hostage by Hamas.

The US has pledged unwavering support for Israel as it seeks to end Hamas' rule over Gaza and crush its military capabilities

Israeli troops pushed into Gaza in larger numbers over the weekend after three weeks of heavy airstrikes that have demolished entire neighbourhoods.

The war, the fifth and by far deadliest in Gaza, began when Hamas launched a bloody October 7 rampage into Israel, killing hundreds of men, women and children. Some 240 were taken captive.
At least 9,061 Palestinians have been killed in the war, mostly women and minors, and more than 32,000 people have been wounded, the Gaza Health Ministry said Thursday, without providing a breakdown between civilians and fighters. The death toll is without precedent in decades of Israeli-Palestinian violence, and is around four times the figure from the 2014 Gaza war, which lasted over six weeks.

Four Palestinians, including three teenagers, were shot dead in different parts of the occupied West Bank early Thursday, the Palestinian Health Ministry said. More than 130 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since the start of the war, mainly in violent protests and gunbattle during Israeli arrest raids.

An Israeli man died after a suspected militant opened fire on his car near a settlement in the West Bank on Thursday, the military and medics said.

Over 1,400 people have died on the Israeli side, mainly civilians killed during Hamas' initial attack, also an unprecedented figure. Seventeen Israeli soldiers have been killed in Gaza since the start of the ground operation.

Rocket fire from Gaza into Israel, and daily skirmishes between Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah militants, has disrupted life for millions of Israelis and forced an estimated 250,000 to evacuate border towns. Most rockets are intercepted or fall in open areas.

Those remaining in Gaza face an increasingly dire situation amid a territory-wide blackout. The World Health Organization said the lack of fuel for hospitals' generators puts at risk 1,000 patients on kidney dialysis, 130 premature babies in incubators, as well as cancer patients and patients on ventilators.

(with PTI inputs)

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