The U.S. military has begun operating surveillance drones over the Gaza Strip in recent days as part of a broader effort to ensure that both Israel and Hamas adhere to a fragile cease-fire agreement, Israeli and American military officials said. The drones have been used to monitor ground activity in Gaza, with the consent of Israel, according to two Israeli military officials and a U.S. defense official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss operational details. They said they were not able to share the drones' flight paths. Those three officials added that the surveillance missions were operating to support a new Civil-Military Coordination Center in southern Israel, which was established last week by the U.S. military's Central Command, in part to monitor the cease-fire. The truce deal, brokered by American, Qatari, and Egyptian mediators earlier this month, has been strained by a recent flare-up of violence in Gaza and lingering tensions over the exchange of deceased Israelis and Palestinians.

Israeli warplanes fired missiles on Iran during a retaliatory strike early Friday morning, one Western official and two Iranian officials said, suggesting that the attack included more advanced firepower than initial reports indicated. It was not immediately clear the types of missiles used, from where they were fired, whether any were intercepted by Iran's defenses or where they landed. The Western official and the Iranian officials requested anonymity to discuss classified information. Previously, Iranian officials said Friday's attack on a military base in central Iran was conducted by small aerial drones, most likely launched from inside Iranian territory. A separate group of small drones, they said soon after the attack, was shot down in the region of Tabriz, roughly 500 miles north of Isfahan.

Air defenses failed to stop an attack on a U.S. military outpost in Jordan on Sunday that killed three American soldiers at least in part because the hostile drone approached its target at the same time an American drone was returning to the base, two U.S. officials said on Monday. The enemy drone was mistaken for an American surveillance drone returning to the remote resupply base, and air defenses were not immediately engaged, according to the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss preliminary findings of a major cause of the episode. Two other drones that attacked other locations nearby in southeast Syria were shot down, they added. The Wall Street Journal earlier reported the drone mix-up, now at the heart of an investigation by the military's Central Command into the deadly attack that has drawn vows of retaliation from President Biden, raised doubts about American military defenses in the Middle East, and begged anew questions about the administration's efforts to deter attacks by Iran-backed militias against merchant vessels, warships and military bases in the region. The attack on Sunday killed three U.S. Army Reserve soldiers, the first known American military fatalities from hostile fire in the turmoil spilling over from Israel's war with Hamas.

The U.S. military is flying surveillance drones over the Gaza Strip, according to two Defense Department officials and an analysis by The New York Times. The officials said the drones were being used to aid in hostage recovery efforts, indicating that the U.S. is more involved than previously known. The aircraft are MQ-9 Reapers operated by U.S. Special Operations forces and were first spotted on Saturday on Flightradar24, a publicly accessible flight-tracking website, though Pentagon officials said that the aircraft have been active in the area since the days after the Oct. 7 surprise attack on Israel by Hamas. While Israel frequently conducts reconnaissance flights over Gaza, U.S. defense officials said it was believed to be the first time that U.S. drones have flown missions over Gaza. The flights are operating at a critical juncture.

In that case, the Navy said it spotted an Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps naval support ship towing a Saildrone Explorer. The American seamen told the Iranians that the drone was U.S. government property and asked for it back. With a U.S. Fifth Fleet MH-60S Sea Hawk helicopter hovering above, the Iranians disconnected the towing line they had attached to that drone and eventually departed the area, according to a U.S. Navy release at the time. The Navy resumed operations "without incident," the release said. The United States and Iran often tangle in the Persian Gulf -- which the United States calls the Arabian Gulf -- and in the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea.

Iran has supplied drone technology to Hezbollah in Lebanon; to Houthi rebels in Yemen attacking Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates; and to Shiite militias in Iraq, which have carried out strikes against Iraqi and American troops. "Russia is turning to an ally that has flown drones in complex environments in large numbers," said Samuel Bendett, a specialist on Russian drones and other weapons at CNA, a research and analysis organization in Arlington, Va. "While the Russians still have drones, they don't have all the types they need." Russia's deal with Iran underscores the ever-growing importance of drones to modern warfare, not just in insurgencies or counterterrorism operations but also in classic conventional-style conflicts. In a contested battlefield like Ukraine where dueling artillery barrages are the deciding factors if an offensive fails or succeeds, drones play a pivotal role.

Artificial intelligence tools in hiring have so far remained unregulated by U.S. civil rights agencies, despite growing use and potential discrimination risks. One EEOC official wants that to change. "What is unfair is if there are enforcement actions or litigation, both from the government and from the private sector, against those who are using the technologies, and the federal agency responsible for administering the laws has said nothing," Keith Sonderling, a Republican commissioner on the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, told Bloomberg Law in an exclusive interview. The use of artificial intelligence for recruitment, resume screening, automated video interviews, and other employment tasks has for years been on the radar of federal regulators and lawmakers, as workers began filing allegations of AI-related discrimination to the EEOC. Attorneys have warned that bias litigation could soon be on the horizon.

Afghanistan and Pakistan accuse each other of allowing militant groups to shelter in remote frontier regions to prepare cross-border attacks. U.S. officials have also accused Pakistan of not doing enough to crack down on such groups operating on its side of the border.

Relations between Washington and Islamabad have frayed in recent months after Trump's angry tweet on Jan. 1 about Pakistan's "lies and deceit" over its alleged support for the Afghan Taliban and their allies. Last month, the United States suspended about $2 billion assistance to Islamabad.