US drones are flying over the Gaza Strip, monitoring the implementation of the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, Israeli and US military officials told The New York Times.

The surveillance missions are part of a US-led international effort to ensure compliance fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.

The drones are being used to monitor ground activity in Gaza, with Israel’s consent, according to two Israeli military officials and a US defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss operational details, but did not release the drones’ routes.

The surveillance missions are conducted with the support of the newly established Civil-Military Coordination Center in southern Israel, in the city Kiryat Ghatnear the Gaza Strip, which was established last week by the US Central Command. The center, which is tasked with monitoring the ceasefire and facilitating the delivery of humanitarian and logistical assistance by international partners to Gaza, was visited by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

The US Secretary of State said that Israel has kept its commitments under the first phase of the 20-point Trump plan and that it will have to agree to the composition of the international force that will enter Gaza in the second phase, which is still under negotiation.

Concern in the US

While the Israel Defense Forces have used drones extensively throughout the two-year war to gather intelligence and target Hamas terrorists, the latest US drone activity suggests Washington is seeking an independent understanding of developments on the ground.

The truce, which was brokered earlier this month by the United States, Qatar and Egypt, has come under pressure after Hamas violated the deal, which has yet to return all the bodies of the dead hostages.

The New York Times also cited several Trump administration officials, who spoke to the US newspaper on condition of anonymity, as saying there was concern in the US that the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu will void the truce due to non-compliance with the terms of the dead hostages agreement.

The US military had previously flown MQ-9 Reaper drones into the Gaza Strip to help Israeli forces locate the hostages, according to the same source.

The former US ambassador to Israel, Daniel Shapirostated that the surveillance drones in Gaza constitute “a very intrusive version of US surveillance on a front where Israel perceives an active threat”.

“If there was absolute transparency and absolute trust between Israel and the US, there would be no need for this, but obviously the US wants to eliminate any possibility of misunderstanding,” Shapiro concluded, according to the New York Times.