US flying drones above Gaza in search for hostages

The U.S. military is flying unarmed MQ-9 Reaper drones above Gaza to assist with efforts to locate the more than 240 people taken hostage by Hamas during the Oct. 7 attack, according to a U.S. official. The acknowledgement comes after reports this past weekend that unmarked aircraft had been detected flying above the Gaza Strip by open-source flight tracking services.

A U.S. official told ABC News that the U.S. military has been flying unarmed MQ-9 Reaper flights over Gaza as part of the hostage recovery efforts, but declined to provide any context about whether the flights are helping in recovery efforts for U.S. hostages only or for all of the hostages taken by Hamas.

An estimated 240 people were taken hostage by Hamas fighters on Oct. 7 and U.S. officials have said it is possible that some of the 10 Americans unaccounted for from the events of that day might be among the hostages. The official would only confirm that the flights began after Oct. 7 and would not provide further details about when they began flying over Gaza.

The drone flights appear to be part of the broader U.S. effort to assist Israel in locating the hostages that includes the presence of U.S. Special Operations Forces providing planning and intelligence support to the Israeli military. A diver who spotted something metallic not far from Sardinia's coast has led to the discovery of tens of thousands of ancient bronze coins.

Italy’s culture ministry said Saturday that the diver alerted authorities, who sent divers assigned to an art protection squad along with others from the ministry’s undersea archaeology department.

The coins dating from the first half of the fourth century were found in sea grass, not far from the northeast shore of the Mediterranean island. The ministry didn't say exactly when the first diver caught a glimpse of something metallic just off shore Sardinia, not far from the town of Arzachena.

Exactly how many coins have been retrieved hasn’t been determined yet, as they are being sorted. A ministry statement estimated that there are at least about 30,000 and possibly as many as 50,000, given their collective weight.

“All the coins were in an excellent and rare state of preservation,” the ministry said. The few coins that were damaged still had legible inscriptions, it said. 

“The treasure found in the waters off Arzachena represent one of the most important coin discoveries," in recent years, said Luigi La Rocca, a Sardinian archaeology department official.

La Rocca added in a statement that the find is “further evidence of the richness and importance of the archaeological heritage that the seabed of our seas, crossed by men and goods from the most ancient of epochs, still keep and preserve.” 

Firefighter divers and border police divers were also involved in locating and retrieving the coins. The coins were mainly found in a wide area of sand between the underwater seagrass and the beach, the ministry said. Given the location and shape of the seabed, there could be remains of ship wreckage nearby, the ministry said.

Reaper drones are flown by the U.S. Air Force and are operated remotely from long distances. Historically, Reaper flights over the Mediterranean area and over North Africa have been flown from the U.S. Naval base in Sigonella, Italy, but Reaper control and flight systems are very portable and can be deployed to areas closer to a target area that can enable the drones to linger longer over targets or search areas.

For operational security reasons, the official would not discuss from where the MQ-9 flights are originating. Reaper drones are mainly known for their high-resolution video and infrared cameras. They can linger above target areas for extended periods of time, but they also carry a variety of other sensors that can provide signals intelligence involving cellphones and other communications devices.

The large drones can also carry up to eight laser-guided Hellfire missiles that can be used on hostile targets as was done in the U.S. conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.