US begins drone surveillance over Gaza to monitor fragile ceasefire under Trump peace plan

The United States this week began to operate surveillance drones over Gaza to monitor the ceasefire, The New York Times reported on Saturday.

The report, citing two Israeli military officials and one defense official, said the drone flights are being conducted with the consent of the Israeli government. Although it remains unclear where the drones are operated from, their purpose is reportedly to provide Washington with an “independent” assessment of the ceasefire in Gaza and to assist the newly established Civil-Military Coordination Center (CMCC) in southern Israel, created under the Trump agreement.

Australia, France, Spain and the United Arab Emirates have reportedly begun sending personnel to the new center overseeing the truce.

The Gaza ceasefire between Israel and the Hamas terrorist organization took effect just over two weeks ago, following the Israeli government’s formal approval of the 20-point plan proposed by U.S. President Donald Trump. Since then, Hamas has repeatedly violated the ceasefire, including by executing Gazans and refusing to disarm.

Observers described the U.S. decision to deploy surveillance drones over Gaza as an unusually direct and intrusive form of oversight.

“This is a very intrusive version of US monitoring on a front where Israel perceives an active threat,” a former U.S. ambassador to Israel under the Obama administration, Daniel B. Shapiro, told the NYT.

“If there was total transparency and total trust between Israel and the US, there wouldn’t be a need for this,” he added. “But obviously the US wants to eliminate any possibility of misunderstanding.”

Former Israeli Consul General in New York Alon Pinkas said on Israeli radio on Friday that President Trump was interfering excessively in Israel’s internal affairs.

"A person comes, admittedly the President of the United States, but a foreign head of state, and intervenes quite bluntly in the internal affairs of another country," Pinkas said, referring to Trump’s comments about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s corruption trial, his call for a pardon from President Isaac Herzog, and his involvement in discussions over whether Marwan Barghouti should be released.

Pinkas also said that Trump "doesn't understand at all how the system works in Israel. He thinks it's like in the United States, where the president can pardon people at will, just like he pardoned himself. What does it mean that he's calling for a pardon for Netanyahu? What does it mean that he's considering the future of?"

The Trump administration reportedly seeks to expand the number of countries involved in monitoring the maintenance of the shaky Gaza ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.

Earlier this week, Germany, Denmark, Canada, Jordan, and the United Kingdom joined the CMCC. Around 200 American soldiers have been deployed to establish the monitoring hub. The U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) has however stressed that Washington has no plans to deploy American troops inside the Gaza Strip to enforce the ceasefire.

“The CMCC is designed to support stabilization efforts… US military personnel will instead help facilitate the flow of humanitarian, logistical, and security assistance from international counterparts into Gaza,” CENTCOM announced.

Washington and Jerusalem agree that Hamas must disarm and give up its power in Gaza. This includes the destruction of Hamas’ vast tunnel infrastructure. However, Channel 12 News reported that Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz told U.S. Vice President JD Vance that 60% of Hamas’ tunnel network remains intact despite two years of heavy fighting.