Britain’s Ministry of Defence holds video surveillance footage of Gaza from the day that Israel killed seven international aid workers but is refusing to publish the tape.
Among those killed in the World Central Kitchen convoy on 1 April were three British military veterans: John Chapman, James Kirby and James ‘Jim’ Henderson.
The footage was taken by a Royal Air Force (RAF) surveillance plane which spent approximately five hours above Gaza that day.
It seemingly returned to base in Cyprus minutes before the airstrikes were launched.
The RAF may therefore have collected footage of events leading up to the tragedy, which could provide clarity over Israeli claims that “Hamas gunmen” were seen near the convoy.
World Central Kitchen founder Jose Andres criticised Israel’s investigation into the incident, in which two senior officers were fired over what was deemed a “grave mistake”.
Andres told ABC: “The investigation should be much more deeper…we need more information. We need to see better quality videos.”
Britain has now emerged as an unlikely source of such footage, having sent more than 200 spy flights over Gaza supposedly to help Israel locate hostages held by Hamas.
The UK military confirmed in a Freedom of Information (FOI) response to Declassified that “video footage of Gaza from the Shadow R1 [surveillance] flight on 1 April is held.”
However the Ministry of Defence (MoD) claims the tape is exempt from disclosure on security grounds and hinted that its contents may relate to UK special forces or MI6.
Declassified intends to appeal the FOI decision, which it shared with some relatives of the deceased aid workers.
Jim Henderson’s father Neil told Declassified: “This footage should not be kept hidden from our family.” He said in a written statement that “the UK government must urgently disclose any evidence it holds” which might “shed light on why James was wrongly targeted by Israel”.
He added: “Jim was an honest, caring, loyal and hard working young man who served his country and was passionate in helping others without concern for his own safety and welfare.”
Forz Khan, the Henderson family’s lawyer, said he is “writing to the new Labour government to demand answers on whether UK military and intelligence assistance to Israel has been used in attacks on British citizens in Gaza”.
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International law
The MoD press office did not answer Declassified’s questions about whether it would show the footage to bereaved families, or if it was potentially relevant for investigations into their deaths.
It also ignored a request to clarify precisely which areas of Gaza and at what times the footage was recorded.
A MoD spokesperson only said: “While the Prime Minister has continued to call for an immediate ceasefire, we have been clear that the Royal Air Force has been operating unarmed surveillance flights over Gaza solely for the purpose of helping to locate hostages.
“In line with our international obligations, we would consider any formal request from the International Criminal Court to provide information relating to investigations into war crimes.”
This statement signifies a slight shift in UK government policy since Labour’s Keir Starmer became prime minister.
Conservative defence secretary Grant Shapps was asked five times in the last parliament whether the UK government would give the ICC any spy flight footage that showed Israel committing war crimes.
Shapps, who lost his seat in July’s election, refused to directly answer the questions, claiming “the number one concern” was “to find and locate British hostages, and that’s where that surveillance work will focus”.
Declassified asked the ICC prosecutor’s office whether it would formally request access to Britain’s surveillance footage of Gaza, as part of its probe into potential war crimes by Israel and Hamas.
A spokesperson said it “is working with all relevant actors including national authorities, to collect information relevant to this investigation” but is “unable to provide further information with respect to details of its investigative activities in response to your request at this stage”.
As signatories to the Rome Statute, the Genocide Convention and the Convention on Torture, the UK has a responsibility to investigate and prosecute those who have committed core international crimes.
Professor Ben Saul, a United Nations special rapporteur, told Declassified: “If a country possesses possible evidence of a war crime, it has a duty to investigate with a view to either prosecuting any suspects or sharing the evidence with other countries interested to genuinely prosecute, or with the International Criminal Court given its active investigation in Israel/Palestine.”
Saul, who is a UN expert on countering terrorism while respecting human rights, added: “Another method of seeking to ensure respect for humanitarian law could be to publicly disclose the evidence so as to expose the conduct and deter further violations.”
Eye in the sky
The spy flight took off from RAF Akrotiri, Britain’s air base on Cyprus, at 5pm local time on 1 April and landed at 10:49pm, flight tracking data shows.
The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) claimed the aid worker convoy departed from a humanitarian pier in Gaza at 10pm, with “armed suspects” allegedly boarding the vehicles at 10:28pm.
Three drone strikes were launched four minutes apart, at 11:09pm, 11:11pm, and 11:13pm.
News of the airstrikes on the aid workers began to surface on Palestinian social media channels slightly earlier, at around 10:30pm, according to the New York Times.
The flight time between Akrotiri and Gaza is around 30 minutes, suggesting the British surveillance plane was heading back to base over the eastern Mediterranean when the attack occurred, or had just landed.
It may have recorded footage of the aid convoy’s movements along Gaza’s coastline shortly before the vehicles were systematically targeted by Israeli drones.
This footage could be used to cross-reference the IDF’s official investigation, and paint a more precise picture of what actually happened.
Israel’s investigation was conducted by Yoav Har-Even, the former head of Israeli state-owned weapons firm Rafael who once led the IDF’s Operations Directorate.
Jim Henderson’s father Neil said Israel’s internal probe “by its very nature will not be independent” and said it would be “totally unacceptable” for UK authorities to trust that process and “an abdication of the responsibility that the British government has towards its citizens”.
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Hostage rescue?
Hamas-led attacks on Israel during October 7 killed around 1,200 people and saw another 250 taken to Gaza as hostages.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is focused on a military solution to free the hostages, despite many of their families favouring negotiations.
A week-long truce in November saw 104 hostages released in exchange for Palestinian captives. In contrast, Israel’s armed hostage rescue attempts have so far freed just seven people.
The IDF also shot dead three hostages waving white flags, while its handful of successful rescue missions have resulted in hundreds of Palestinian deaths.
Only one remaining hostage is thought to be a UK national, after another passport holder – Nadav Popplewell – recently died.
Hamas claimed Popplewell was killed by an Israeli airstrike. IDF spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said Popplewell was killed “in the area of Khan Younis during our operation there against Hamas”.
Amnesty International says “the remaining hostages include nine civilian women and two very young children, aged one and four years old.”
Ayala Metzger, whose father-in-law was taken hostage and died in Gaza last month, told Amnesty: “Our current government gave up the hostages; it has no interest in releasing them, no real effort is made. What is needed first is a decision to stop the war.”
Mission creep
Britain commenced its spy flights directly over Gaza in December, having previously only flown up to the edge of international air space.
The planes are estimated to have now recorded 1,000 hours of footage from the war zone, compiling a unique archive of a conflict which has killed nearly 40,000 Palestinians.
Although the UK government claims the flights are solely focused on hostage rescue, the IDF’s entire operation in Gaza is ultimately based on that premise.
As such, it seems plausible that intelligence from British spy flights could be used by the IDF for military operations in Gaza.
Former MP Kenny MacAskill asked the Ministry of Defence in May “to which Israeli authorities information from the RAF surveillance flights over Gaza… has been passed”.
Then defence minister Leo Docherty responded that “information relating to hostage rescue is passed to the Israeli authorities which provide the best chance of locating hostages”.
Whether the UK government has imposed restrictions on Israel’s use of shared intelligence for military operations remains unclear.
The New York Times recently revealed that “intelligence collection and analysis teams from the United States and Britain have been in Israel throughout the war”.
An Israeli official said that “the outside intelligence” provided by Britain had given them “added value”, claiming that the British team was not involved in “the planning or execution of the military operations to rescue the hostages”.
Al-Shifa hospital
Israel’s attack on the World Central Kitchen convoy was not the only atrocity to occur in Gaza on 1 April.
That day, Israeli forces withdrew from al-Shifa hospital, once the biggest and best-equipped medical facility in the Gaza Strip.
They left behind a trail of death and destruction, with the hospital buildings raised to the ground and around 400 Palestinians killed.
“The occupation destroyed and burnt all buildings inside al-Shifa medical complex”, said Ismail Al-Thawabta, the director general of the Gaza government’s media office.
“They bulldozed the courtyards, burying dozens of bodies of martyrs in the rubble, turning the place into a mass graveyard. This is a crime against humanity”, he continued.
Four mass graves were later discovered in the courtyards of al-Shifa, with the decaying bodies sticking out of mounds of sand which had been piled up by combat bulldozers. Some of them still had catheters attached to them.
Another British surveillance plane had flown over Gaza earlier on 1 April, taking off at 1:03pm and returning at 7:01pm local time. The MoD previously ignored a question about whether its surveillance flights had gathered evidence of mass graves at al-Shifa hospital.
Read the MoD’s Freedom of Information response to Declassified in full:
