US deploys surveillance drones to monitor Gaza truce 'independently of Israel': report

The US military has deployed surveillance drones in recent days to monitor the fragile ceasefire agreement in the Gaza Strip, amid a series of Israeli violations and tensions over the deal’s conditions, The New York Times reported.

The drones have been established amid efforts to ensure compliance with the ceasefire’s agreements and with the consent of Israel the NYT said, citing US and Israeli officials on condition of anonymity.

The surveillance mission is reportedly supporting a new Civil-Military Coordination Centre in southern Israel, a US-established body intended to "coordinate relief and stabilisation efforts in Gaza".

Washington’s monitoring of the ongoing ceasefire developments suggests a US desire to have its own understanding of occurrences in Gaza independent of Israeli interference, the US publication said.

The US, which backed Israel’s genocidal war in the Gaza Strip, had previously offered drone assistance to Israel during the military onslaught.

In the early stages of the war, the United States used MQ-9 Reaper drones over Gaza to support efforts to free Israeli captives and shared information from those missions with its ally, including identifying potential locations.

The recent surveillance mission has drawn surprises from some US diplomats, given the usual close military cooperation between Washington and Tel Aviv, which had increased during the war.

A former US ambassador to Israel, Daniel B. Shapiro, called the move "very intrusive," and stressed that "there wouldn’t be a need for this if there was total transparency and total trust" between the two countries.

Since the ceasefire’s implementation earlier this month and Donald Trump’s visit to Israel and Egypt, several US officials have visited Israel to oversee developments. Secretary of State Marco Rubio visited the Civilian-Military Coordination Centre at the Kirya Gat base on Friday, where he expressed "optimism" for a durable ceasefire, but said that Israel has to be "at ease with the nations contributing to a future international security force in Gaza". He also warned that UNRWA "cannot play a role" in the future governance of Gaza.

US Vice President JD Vance was also in Israel, earlier this week.

A ceasefire came into effect on 10 October after an agreement based on US President Donald Trump’s 20-point plan was reached. The conditions of the ceasefire’s first phase entailed the release of both dead and alive captives, the release of 2,000 Palestinian detainees, the gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces from designated areas, as well as the entry of aid trucks daily to help alleviate the hunger crisis created by Israel.

The ceasefire agreement came after over two years of a brutal Israeli military campaign launched in October 2023, which has killed over 68,500 Palestinians, in acts deemed as genocidal by UN experts, human rights groups and several world leaders.

Israel’s attacks on the Gaza Strip reduced much of the Palestinian enclave’s infrastructure to rubble, put a halt to civil life, and its siege led to the first-ever declaration of a famine in the Middle East.