Picture by Tim Hammond / No 10 Downing Street
The Royal Air Force (RAF) has operated surveillance flights near Gaza on all five days of the ceasefire that Hamas released hostages, Declassified has found.
No spy planes were sent towards the strip on the other 20 days of the ceasefire.
The latest flight, by a Shadow R1 spy plane, occurred on 8 February when three Israeli men – Eli Sharabi, Or Levy and Ohad Ben Ami – became free from captivity. Evidence found by Declassified suggests the spy plane was in the air at the same time.
Other hostages were released on 1 February and 19, 25 and 30 January as part of the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas. Among them was the British-Israeli, Emily Damari.
RAF aircraft were also in the air when these hostages were released, data indicates.
The planes take off from Britain’s air base on Cyprus, RAF Akrotiri, and head in the direction of Gaza, when they turn their transponders off.
Prior to the ceasefire, such flights were an almost daily occurrence with the UK government claiming they were helping Israel find hostages.
Labour MP Brian Leishman told Declassified: “The ongoing use of a British military base in Cyprus with spy planes flying near Gaza is concerning. The purpose of these flights, the activities they undertake and what happens with any information they gather should be both questioned and explained.”
Campaigners in Cyprus are also questioning the UK government’s motives for the ongoing surveillance flights.
Melanie Steliou, a Cypriot actress and spokesperson for Social Alliance – a movement affiliated with Cyprus’ main opposition party AKEL – told Declassified: “The explanation given that the flights being sent from RAF Akrotiri are only for rescuing hostages is not convincing.
“Why are these flights being continued during a ceasefire? Why are these flights near Gaza during hostage releases? What intelligence is RAF Akrotiri sharing with Israel?
“Are they only sharing intelligence or is the involvement of the bases at a greater level, creating even more risks for Cyprus and its people? These are legitimate questions”.
A spokesperson for Britain’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) told Declassified: “The UK’s operational mandate has been narrowly defined to focus on securing the release of the hostages only.”
They claimed that RAF flights in the Eastern Mediterranean during the truce “did not enter Gazan airspace and at all times operated in accordance with the ceasefire and hostage release agreement between Israel and Hamas”.
However, the UK military may be breaking the spirit, if not the word, of the ceasefire agreement. The text of the original ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas states that in the first phase: “All aviation (military and reconnaissance) in the Gaza strip shall cease for 10 hours a day, and for 12 hours on the days when captives and prisoners are being exchanged”.
This stipulation was designed to offer Palestinians respite from Israeli bombardment, and to assure Hamas that Israel will not collect intelligence on hostage movements and locations for use if the ceasefire collapses.
The potential for the UK military to spy on Hamas while hostages are being released raises the prospect that Israel could use such intelligence if it resumes its brutal assault on Gaza. The Shadow R1 planes are capable of gathering information for “target acquisition”.
The surveillance flights from Cyprus have sparked protests outside Akrotiri air base, where Britain retained 3% of the island after independence in 1960.
Steliou said: “What has been going on at the bases for the past 16 months has basically opened a pandora’s box for the actual existence of the British bases in Cyprus. Cypriot citizens who in the past might have turned a blind eye to the activities on the British bases are now more aware than ever of the implications and the dangers these activities entail for the entire population.
“We have a right as citizens of this island to know how the British bases are involved in the ongoing genocide of the Palestinians in Gaza. These activities, amongst others, make the bases a target which consequently lead to Cyprus being a target.”
She added that Social Alliance, AKEL and other groups on the island have urged Cypriot president Nikos Christodoulides to demand answers from the British government.
UK prime minister Keir Starmer visited Akrotiri in December and thanked RAF personnel there, saying: “Quite a bit of what goes on here can’t necessarily be talked about all of the time. We can’t necessarily tell the world what you’re doing.”
Source: Declassified UK
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