The Royal Air Force (RAF) has conducted at least 518 surveillance flights around Gaza since December 2023, an investigation by Action on Armed Violence (AOAV) for Declassified UK has found.
The flights, carried out by 14 Squadron’s Shadow R1 aircraft from RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus, have been shrouded in secrecy, raising concerns about whether British intelligence has played a role in Israeli military operations that have resulted in mass civilian casualties in Gaza.
These revelations come as Israel faces allegations of genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and war crimes at the International Criminal Court (ICC), with warrants issued for Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant.
The UK government insists that the flights are purely for hostage recovery, but the lack of transparency has done little to allay suspicions that the intelligence gathered may be facilitating Israeli attacks.
Surveillance sorties continued during and after the ceasefire, despite Israel’s renewed bombing of Gaza killing hundreds of children.
Over 500 missions in 15 months
AOAV’s analysis of flight-tracking data shows that between 3 December 2023 and 27 March 2025, the RAF carried out at least 518 Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) flights over or close to Gaza’s airspace.
Both Labour and Conservative governments have enacted the policy, with at least 215 flights taking place during Keir Starmer’s tenure as prime minister and 303 under Rishi Sunak’s administration.
The frequency of flights remained high throughout 2024, with some months seeing as many as 49 sorties. The missions have typically lasted up to six hours, with the longest flight recorded at seven hours and four minutes.
While the Ministry of Defence (MoD) claims these flights are solely for locating Israeli hostages held by Hamas, AOAV found that the RAF conducted 24 flights in the two weeks leading up to and including the day of Israel’s deadly attack on the Nuseirat refugee camp on 8 June 2024, which reportedly killed 274 Palestinians and injured over 700.
Four Israeli hostages were rescued in the operation; it remains unclear whether British intelligence directly contributed to the attack or was solely used to locate hostages.
In another case, an RAF Shadow R1 most likely landed at Israel’s Nevatim Air Base on 13 February 2024 and remained there for two hours before departing. Nevatim is a key Israeli military base and hosts the country’s F-35 squadron, which has carried out extensive airstrikes in Gaza.
This is not the only instance where UK ISR flights have coincided with major Israeli military assaults. In the two weeks leading up to Israel’s attack on Rafah on 12 February 2024, which killed at least 67 Palestinians, the RAF flew 15 ISR missions over Gaza. Flights continued even during the so-called ‘limited ceasefire’ in early 2025, with six flights recorded in February alone.
With no parliamentary oversight or public scrutiny, it remains unclear how much British intelligence gathered from these flights has been shared with Israel.
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Parliamentary stonewalling
Parliamentary efforts to probe the true purpose of these flights have been repeatedly stonewalled by the UK government. In April 2024, then-Alba MP Kenny MacAskill asked the MoD whether RAF surveillance flights had recorded evidence of mass graves at Gaza’s hospitals. The response was a boilerplate answer, insisting that ISR flights were “solely to locate hostages”.
Similarly, in October 2024, Independent MP Imran Hussain asked the government for details on the cost and codename of the RAF’s Gaza operations. The response was a refusal to disclose information, citing ‘operational security’.
This lack of transparency raises serious questions about whether the UK is complicit in violations of international law. If intelligence gathered by the RAF was used to facilitate war crimes, the UK could itself be liable under the Rome Statute of the ICC.
The ICJ’s genocide case against Israel, brought by South Africa, highlights mass civilian deaths, deliberate destruction of infrastructure, and obstruction of humanitarian aid as key components of the allegations.
The UK, as a signatory to the Arms Trade Treaty and the Geneva Conventions, is legally obligated to ensure its military intelligence is not used to facilitate war crimes. However, the UK government has admitted in court that “Israel is not committed to upholding international humanitarian law” – yet surveillance flights continue.
The Shadow R1 and the UK’s ‘crusader squadron’
The flights in question are operated by 14 Squadron, which until July 2024 was controversially nicknamed the ‘Crusader Squadron’. The unit flies the Shadow R1, a heavily modified Beechcraft King Air 350CER, which is equipped with high-definition electro-optical sensors, electronic surveillance capabilities, and satellite communications.
The aircraft, which can track vehicle convoys, monitor buildings, and gather real-time battlefield intelligence, is typically used to provide ground commanders with targeting information. While the UK insists its data is only for hostage rescue, once intelligence is shared with Israel (or the US), the UK loses control over how it is used.
RAF Shadow R1 aircraft have landed at several civilian and military airports across Europe since December 2023, including in Italy, Croatia, France and Germany.
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Calls for a public inquiry
Pressure is growing for a full public inquiry into the UK’s role in Israel’s bombardment of Gaza. This month, Independent MP Jeremy Corbyn called for a ‘Chilcot-style’ investigation into the UK’s military collaboration with Israel, warning that “parliament has been kept in the dark”.
Human rights groups, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, have also demanded full transparency regarding UK surveillance flights and their potential role in Israeli operations.
Nuvpreet Kalra from campaign group CODEPINK told Declassified that when a bomb “massacres Palestinians sheltering in tents or a drone shoots dead a journalist, we have to ask where the intelligence to target these attacks come from…Britain must immediately stop the spy flights and shut down their colonial military bases on Cyprus.”
The MoD said that “We are committed to securing the release of the remaining hostages and will continue to support hostage rescue efforts. MoD surveillance flights supporting this effort are unarmed, do not have a combat role, and are solely focussed on securing the release of the hostages.”
“The UK controls what information is passed on and only information relating to hostage rescue is passed to the relevant Israeli authorities. We will only pass information where we are satisfied that it will be used in accordance with International Humanitarian Law.”
If UK intelligence has been used in any Israeli strikes that resulted in civilian deaths, the British government could be found complicit in war crimes.
