By Matt Kennard
US spy plane arrived at airport in Sinai near Gaza on 23 August
Spy plane has landed at Hatzor military base in Israel 13 times from Egypt
Pilot flew from Israeli military base on 31 August and forgot to turn transponder off, circling off the coast of Gaza for an hour as Gaza City was attacked
Plane is similar to that the British have been sending over Gaza since December 2023
Same Egyptian airport is hosting a US Black Hawk helicopter which is flying close to, and possibly over, Gaza
Trump has been sending a RQ-4 Global Hawk drone along Gaza coast from US base on Sicily since March
US Department of War refuses to comment to Deep Dive
The US military is using an obscure airport 13 miles from Gaza to fly surveillance missions around the Palestinian territory under the guise of a peacekeeping force, Deep Dive can reveal.
The airport, called El Gora, is usually largely inactive but used by the Multinational Force and Observers (MFO), the peacekeeping organisation that monitors the security provisions of the 1979 Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty in the Sinai. It is the closest airport to Gaza outside of Israel.
A U.S. Air Force Beech C-12V Huron plane arrived in Egypt on 23 August and has been flying daily flights in the region since. A Black Hawk helicopter also started flying from the airport on 9 September. It is believed that the planes are operating under the MFO mandate, which does not include the war in Gaza, because their callsign includes that acronym.
But Deep Dive has found evidence the planes are being used by the Trump administration to spy close to, and possibly over, Gaza.
The US Beech C-12V flew its first mission on 31 August and transponder data shows it spent an hour circling just 10 miles off northern Gaza after taking off from Hatzor military base in Israel, which has been used to gather intelligence over the Palestinian territory.
It surged to 18,000 feet as it circled off the coast, directly in line with Gaza City. Surveillance planes fly at this high altitude when they want to avoid radar detection and gain a better vantage point for intelligence-gathering.
The flight came two days after Israel announced that Gaza City was now a “combat zone” and prepared its latest assault on the capital of the Palestinian territory. Residents of Sheikh Radwan, one of Gaza City’s largest neighbourhoods, said the area had been under Israeli tank shelling and airstrikes on the day the US spy plane circled off the coast. At least 30 Palestinians were killed in the city.
During the American Beech C-12V’s subsequent missions the transponder was turned off for the majority of the flights, but Deep Dive located it off the coast of north Gaza on three occasions last month, on September 7, 9 and 21, as Israel continued its assault on Gaza City.
Landing in Israel
The Beech plane has also landed 13 times at Israel’s Hatzor military base since August 31. Hatzor is a major Israeli Air Force (IAF) airbase, sitting just 16 miles from Gaza and hosting the IAF’s 200th Squadron, which operates Heron 1 drones. These drones have been used for surveillance and intelligence gathering over the Gaza Strip since October 2023.
The US plane also appears to be landing in Cairo, the capital of Egypt, and Sharm el-Sheikh, the popular tourist destination on the south Sinai peninsula.
The US Black Hawk helicopter, meanwhile, began flying from El Gora on September 9, travelling south along the Sinai border before returning to the base and circling for three hours above it. On September 12 it spent all day in the sky and turned its transponder off for most of the journey, but transponder data puts it next to north Gaza, possibly flying over the Palestinian territory. The Black Hawk helicopter is a multi-purpose vehicle whose capabilities include surveillance.
The Beech C-12V, meanwhile, is a multi-purpose plane used by the US Army, whose capabilities include surveillance and intelligence-gathering. It can relay any intelligence to the ground while it is in the air.
The plane is a variant of the Beechcraft King Air 350 which the UK military has been flying over Gaza from RAF Akrotiri on Cyprus since December 2023. The intelligence gathered by the British has been relayed to the Israeli military in real-time.
The US military Beech C12-V appears to be based at Fort Bragg in North Carolina. On 15 August it moved from Fort Bragg to Bangor airport in Maine, then the following day flew to Keflavik, Iceland. On August 17 it flew to Shannon airport in Ireland then two days later flew to Clay Kaserne airfield in Germany, a US military installation. On August 21 it flew to Naples, Italy, before two days later finally arriving in Egypt.
Deep Dive asked the US military if these assets were being used to spy on Gaza and if intelligence was being shared with Israel. It declined to comment.
The Airport
El Gora Airport is a civilian airport which was originally built by Israel as Eitam Air Force Base. Israel captured the Sinai peninsula during the Six-Day War in 1967 and only withdrew in 1982 as part of the US-brokered Camp David Accords three years earlier.
The airport is primarily used by the Multinational Force and Observers (MFO). The MFO is jointly funded by Egypt, Israel, and the United States, with 1,200 troops from 15 nations, although nearly half are US personnel. The callsign of the plane, MFO692, indicates that Gaza operations are being done under cover of the MFO mandate.
El Gora has also seen traffic from Israeli military planes. On 1 February 2025, a Piper PA-23 plane belonging to the Israeli Air Force flew from El Gora to Israel. On February 17 2025, a US Air Force C30J Hercules flew from El Gora to Tel Aviv then on to Paphos in Cyprus and back to Tel Aviv. And on 27 March 2025, a CT-156 Harvard II, which also appears to belong to the Israeli military, flew from El Gora to Israel.
Trump also appears to have been using a RQ-4 Global Hawk drone to spy on Gaza from NAS Sigonella, a US military base in Sicily. The drone also makes regular stops in the United Arab Emirates. The plane appears to have flown its first mission near Israel and Gaza on 11 March and up until now it appears to have carried out frequent missions along the coast of Israel and Gaza.
The RQ-4 is a high-altitude, long-endurance drone designed for intelligence and surveillance missions. It is capable of flying for over 30 hours at altitudes of up to 60,000 feet, allowing it to collect high-resolution data in all types of weather, day or night.
Sisi’s Record
It is unclear if the Egyptian government is aware of the US missions from the airport in their territory, although transponder data shows that Israeli military planes involved in bombing Gaza habitually use Egyptian airspace on their missions.
Egypt’s Rafah crossing is Gaza’s sole non-Israeli-controlled border, yet under Sisi it has been closed for long periods during the genocide. By 2025, over 5,000 aid trucks had piled up on the Egyptian side, unable to enter due to what Sisi calls “Israeli control” of the Palestinian side, but critics argue this is a deflection: Egypt could unilaterally open its border, as it did briefly under President Mohamed Morsi in 2012.
Sisi’s Egypt also has deepened economic interdependence with Israel. In August 2025—the same week Sisi first labeled Israel’s actions a “systematic genocide”—Egypt inked a record $35 billion gas export deal with Israel, expanding imports from fields like Leviathan to meet domestic demand.
Domestically, Sisi’s regime has crushed pro-Palestine activism. In June 2025, Egyptian authorities detained more than 200 pro-Palestinian activists in Cairo who were planning to march to the Rafah border.
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Remember, if it involves Israel and its legion of bootlickers, expect nothing but lies, deception, and corruption. That way you'll never be shocked or disgusted when the truth is revealed.