The United Kingdom’s government has been told by a veteran of its Royal Air Force to “release the footage” of the flights launched from its Akrotiri air base in Cyprus over Gaza, which were allegedly gathering intelligence which was shared with Israel.
Steve Masters, who served in the RAF as a technician for 19 years, told British investigative journalism website Declassified UK that “the continuing blockage of that footage to the public does nothing to quell the suspicion that we are materially aiding a genocide”.
“My message to the government is to release the footage …So, I think there is a need for them to be held accountable, and if that means going to the Hague, so be it,” he said, in reference to the international court of justice and international criminal court, both of which are located in the Dutch city.
Asked whether he believes intelligence from those flights may have been shared with Israel and used to target civilians, he said that “I don’t think that’s a stretch of anybody’s imagination”.
“They’ve admitted themselves that they’re sharing intelligence from these flights in real time. Now, that could well be connected to hostages, but it could also be for ground operations in general, [and] also quite easily be used for general target acquisition,” he said.
Concerns regarding the UK’s military relationship with Israel have been raised inside the British parliament, with MP Brian Leishman of the country’s ruling Labour Party describing the situation as “scandalous”.
“We are in the scandalous position where we train IDF [Israel Defence Forces] soldiers, soldiers of an army that commits war crimes,” he began, before saying that “we will not tell our people what we are facilitating from RAF Akrotiri, hiding behind the veil of national security and secrecy”.
He added that Netanyahu’s government has “by design, rippled the Palestinian economy by impacting its ability to trade, thus making Palestinians reliant on Israel for goods, for produce and ultimately for survival”, and then accused Israel of “economic terrorism”.
“The military support we continue to give Israel makes a mockery of our humanitarian obligations. By continuing to trade with [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu’s murderous regime, we serve to boost their economy,” he said.
Objections and allegations regarding the British bases’ role in Gaza had earlier been raised by Jeremy Corbyn, who led the Labour Party between 2015 and 2020.
In March, he said that he was “concerned” that the bases “are being used as an intermediary point in flights to Israel by British, and I suspect American planes as well, and are being used for surveillance under Gaza”.
“It is very unclear where the information is going,” he added, saying that a number of British MPs have asked that the information collected, if any, be handed over to the International Criminal Court, which has issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defence minister Yoav Gallant for alleged war crimes.
Asked whether the bases do otherwise contribute to stability in the Middle East region, he asked two questions of his own: “what do they mean by security and stability coming from those bases?”, and “what are the bases actually being used for at the present time?”
Away from direct involvement in Gaza, the British government earlier in the year denied that its bases in Cyprus had been used as part of the United States’ strikes on nuclear facilities in Iran in June.
Jonathan Reynolds, the country’s business secretary at the time, said that no assistance was requested by the US ahead of the strikes, after it had been reported that the US may ask the UK for permission to station aircraft in Cyprus for future attacks on Iran.
On the matter of when the British government was informed, he said, “I can’t tell you exactly when we did know, but we were informed, as you might expect”.
Last year, Cyprus was the likely launchpad for military support offered by the United Kingdom to defend Israel from a volley of Iranian missiles launched at the start of October.
The British defence ministry had at the time announced that two RAF Typhoon fighter jets and one Voyager air-to-air refuelling tanker “played their part in attempts to prevent further escalation in the Middle East”.
This, they said, demonstrated “the UK’s unwavering commitment to Israel’s security”.
