The UK’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) has refused to disclose how many surveillance flights the Royal Air Force (RAF) has conducted over Gaza since the start of Israel’s war in October 2023, despite admitting that it holds the information.
This week officials confirmed that records of the flights exist but said details of their flights were being withheld in their entirety. The response followed a Freedom of Information (FOI) request by Action on Armed Violence (AOAV). The ministry cited exemptions under the FOI Act relating to defence, national security and the activities of security bodies. According to the MoD, releasing the data would be “likely to prejudice the capability, effectiveness or security” of British forces and could expose the involvement of intelligence agencies. A public-interest test was conducted, but officials concluded that the need to protect military capability outweighed the public’s right to know.
The refusal comes against the backdrop of extensive British aerial surveillance over Gaza. Earlier this year AOAV revealed, using flight-tracking data, that more than 600 sorties were flown between December 2023 and August 2025 from RAF Akrotiri, Britain’s base on Cyprus. The RAF used its small fleet of Shadow R1 reconnaissance aircraft, fitted with high-resolution cameras and electronic surveillance equipment.
The MoD’s latest letter did acknowledge one detail: that since December 2023 Britain has “routinely conducted unarmed surveillance flights over Gaza for the sole purpose of locating hostages, including British nationals.” It added that the UK “controls what information is passed to Israeli authorities and only information relating to hostage rescue will be passed to the relevant authority.”
The department insisted it would only share intelligence “where we are satisfied that it will be used in accordance with International Humanitarian Law.”
Human rights groups and MPs have raised concerns that such assurances cannot be verified. Once intelligence is transferred, Britain has no control over its ultimate use. The Intelligence and Security Committee has previously warned that shared data can be repurposed for entirely different objectives, including those that may breach international law.
AOAV has previously sought to understand how such intelligence sharing will be “used in accordance with International Humanitarian Law”, but the UK’s Investigatory Powers Commissioner’s Office, which oversees UK public authorities such as the intelligence agencies, has also refused to tell us whether it had reviewed intelligence-sharing from these missions, citing its exemption from such disclosures under the Freedom of Information Act.
Despite such stonewalling, AOAV’s analysis has raised concerns that RAF surveillance missions often coincide with major Israeli military operations. In June 2024, for instance, the RAF flew 24 sorties in the fortnight before Israel stormed the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza to free four hostages. The raid killed more than 270 Palestinians and injured hundreds more. The UN later said the operation may amount to a war crime. British ministers subsequently confirmed that intelligence had been shared with “relevant authorities”, but declined to say whether it had been used in the raid.
In another case, an RAF Shadow R1 was tracked landing at Israel’s Nevatim air base in February 2024. Nevatim hosts Israel’s F-35 squadron, which has conducted extensive bombing of Gaza. The MoD refused to comment on the purpose of the flight.
Britain has also outsourced part of its surveillance effort to a private American contractor. In August AOAV and Declassified UK revealed that Straight Flight Nevada, a subsidiary of Sierra Nevada Corporation, had been hired to operate Beechcraft reconnaissance planes from Akrotiri. One of these aircraft was recorded circling over Gaza in December 2024, just hours before an Israeli airstrike on Nuseirat killed more than 30 civilians. The MoD later said outsourcing began only in mid-2025 due to pressure on the RAF’s fleet. The earlier presence of contractor planes appears to contradict that claim, raising further questions about transparency. With private pilots flying American-registered aircraft from a British base, accountability is blurred.
The MoD’s refusal adds to a series of stonewalled attempts by MPs to secure details of Britain’s role. Questions in Parliament about the cost of operations, their
codename or whether they had recorded evidence of mass graves in Gaza have all been met with non-answers. In each case the government has fallen back on a formula: the flights are “solely to locate hostages” and nothing more.
Critics are sceptical. Amnesty International has called on Britain to suspend military assistance to Israel, citing the “clear risk” of complicity in war crimes. Jeremy Corbyn has described the flights as “utterly indefensible”, while Liberal Democrat defence spokesperson Helen Maguire has pressed ministers to explain what safeguards exist to prevent misuse of intelligence.
Even senior military figures have questioned the approach. One told The Times: “Instead of sending a message to Israel that we aren’t going to do surveillance for you, we are happy to hire an American company and pay for it.”
The FOI refusal also highlights potential legal risks. Under Article 16 of the International Law Commission’s Draft Articles on State Responsibility, a state which knowingly aids another in committing an internationally wrongful act may itself be culpable. If British surveillance has been used to facilitate Israeli strikes that violated international humanitarian law, the UK could face allegations of complicity. The stakes are high. Israel already faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice and war-crimes investigations at the International Criminal Court. Should evidence emerge that British intelligence was misused, London could find itself under scrutiny in international forums.
For Palestinians under the drone of engines, the difference between reconnaissance and combat is academic. Surveillance flights may not drop bombs, but they can guide them. With tens of thousands dead, the fear that British eyes in the sky have contributed to the destruction is hard to dismiss. The MoD maintains its silence. In December 2024, Keir Starmer told RAF personnel at Akrotiri: “Quite a bit of what goes on here can’t necessarily be talked about… We can’t tell the world what you’re doing here.” That sentiment now finds formal expression in the ministry’s FOI refusal.
For now, ministers refuse even the most basic disclosure: how many times British aircraft have flown over Gaza, what those missions recorded, and how far the intelligence has travelled into the hands of those prosecuting a war that has levelled much of the territory. AOAV is challenging that secrecy.
Whether Britain can shield itself from accusations of complicity through silence alone remains doubtful.
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