Banksy's stolen work latest in a series on the Palestinian situation

The latest artwork by British street artist Banksy showing three military drones plastered across a 'Stop' traffic sign in south London was removed by an unidentified man shortly after it was unveiled by its creator on Friday.

Pictures and videos posted online showed the man, with assistance from another person, using pliers to break the sign off its post and run off with it as passers-by looked on.

Banksy posted a picture of the artwork on his website as well as on Instagram, where he has more than 12 million followers. It was not clear if its removal was part of the stunt.

The red Stop sign had grey drone-like aircraft flying diagonally across it. Banksy usually provides confirmation of his work on social media but gives few other details.

The new artwork was revealed at a time of heated discourse over the Israel-Palestine conflict, with world leaders divided over a decision to call for a ceasefire in Gaza. It could be taken as a call for a ceasefire in the region.

A United Nations Security Council vote on a bid to boost aid deliveries to Gaza took place on Friday after the United States twice vetoed action in response to the 11-week-long bombardment of Gaza following the October 7 attack on Israel by Hamas. The U.S. and Israel have opposed a ceasefire, saying it would only benefit Hamas.

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In 2015, Banksy began to show solidarity with the Palestinian cause with a series of street art appearing in Gaza and The West Bank, in what was one of his most controversial political projects to date. He captioned a sad, crouching figure: 'Bomb damage, Gaza City.'

In another, he wrote: "Gaza is often described as 'the world's largest open-air prison' because no one is allowed to enter or leave. But that seems a bit unfair to prisons - they don't have their electricity and drinking water cut off randomly almost every day."

In 2017 he also established The Walled Off hotel in Bethlehem, opposite the portion of the Israeli West Bank wall separating Bethlehem from the holy site of Rachel's Tomb in 2017 as a temporary exhibition but it soon attracted 140,000 visitors. The hotel stands three storeys high. Its bedroom walls and hallways are decorated with the mysterious artist's stencil graffiti work. One shows an Israeli soldier and masked Palestinian youth having a pillow fight, and a statue of a chimpanzee bell-boy stands at the entrance, clothes falling out of the suitcase he holds. The hotel, converted from a pottery workshop, has been styled to resemble "an English gentlemen's club from colonial times", a statement from the artist said, in acknowledgement of the historical role Britain played in the Middle East. But the decor was been spiced up with statues choking on tear gas, cherubs hanging from the ceiling, their faces covered by oxygen masks and oil paintings of refugee life jackets washed ashore.

Banksy, whose real name is not known, described his guesthouse as having the worst view of any hotel in the world: Every room overlooks the barrier which is a symbol of oppression for the Palestinians. 

Palestinians dub it an "apartheid wall" and an Israeli attempt to grab land in the West Bank, which they want along with Gaza and East Jerusalem, for a future state. In a statement Banksy said the hotel "offers a warm welcome to people from all sides of the conflict and across the world" and was financed by the artist.

Critics have called it 'war tourism'.

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