Why is Britain still sending spy flights towards Gaza?
JOHN McEVOY | Two RAF surveillance planes have flown over the eastern Mediterranean during the ceasefire, as campaigners demand inquiry into UK intelligence sharing with Israel. | Britain’s Royal Air Force (RAF) has dispatched two surveillance planes towards Gaza since the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas began, Declassified can reveal. Both flights took place while hostages were in the process of being exchanged. ■ The Foreign Office says the surveillance aircraft are “unarmed” and “tasked solely to locate hostages”, raising serious questions about why spy planes are still being sent to the region while hostages are being released. ■ Zaki Sarraf, a legal officer at the International Centre of Justice for Palestinians (ICJP) told Declassified:
💬 “For months, the government has said that RAF planes flying around Gaza are used solely for locating hostages, so why are these flights still happening now that hostilities have paused?”
The first spy flight departed from RAF Akrotiri, Britain’s airbase in Cyprus, at 15:32 and returned at 20:59 local time on 19 January – the day the ceasefire went into effect. ■ The aircraft turned off its transponders over the eastern Mediterranean, raising questions about precisely what it was doing in the air while the last remaining British hostage, Emily Damari, was being released by Hamas.