The Ministry of Defence (MOD) has confirmed that Royal Air Force aircraft have been flying unarmed surveillance missions over Gaza since December 2023, but it refuses to say how many. In a Freedom of Information reply to a request by Action on Armed Violence (AOAV), the MOD admitted the data exists but withheld it under exemptions covering defence, national security and security services.
Officials argued that disclosure would prejudice British military capability and could aid adversaries.
The ministry insists the flights are for “the sole purpose of locating hostages, including British nationals”, and stresses that the UK controls what intelligence is passed to Israel. Information is shared, it says, only if it relates directly to hostage rescue and only if officials are satisfied it will be used in line with international humanitarian law. A public-interest test acknowledged strong demand for transparency, but concluded secrecy outweighed disclosure.
Yet independent investigation paints a very different picture. We reported in March 2025 that the RAF had already carried out at least 519 surveillance sorties over or near Gaza between December 2023 and that date, flown from RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus by 14 Squadron’s Shadow R1 aircraft. Missions lasted up to seven hours, with some months recording nearly 50 flights.
AOAV’s data suggest the flights coincided with major Israeli assaults. In June 2024, the RAF flew 24 sorties in the fortnight before Israel’s deadly raid on the Nuseirat refugee camp, which killed 274 Palestinians. In February 2024, 15 RAF missions preceded an attack on Rafah that left at least 67 dead. In one instance, a Shadow R1 landed at Israel’s Nevatim air base, home to the F-35 squadron that has pounded Gaza.
The government insists the flights have no combat role, but suspicions grow that intelligence may have been shared beyond hostage-related tasks. If so, Britain could face accusations of complicity in war crimes, as Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice and war crimes at the International Criminal Court.
Parliamentary questions have been brushed aside with stock answers. MPs who pressed the government on whether RAF flights had detected mass graves, or asked for costs and operational codenames, received only refusals citing “operational security”. Calls are mounting for a Chilcot-style inquiry into Britain’s military collaboration with Israel.
For now, the MOD offers a narrow admission. Their spy flights are happening. But it denies the public even the numbers.
AOAV’s findings suggest the true scale is far larger, and potentially far more entangled with Israel’s war in Gaza than ministers will admit.
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