Corbyn presents inquiry bill as UK spy planes continue flights over Gaza
The British government is facing fresh questions about its Royal Air Force (RAF) surveillance flights over Gaza - which have continued even as Foreign Secretary David Lammy announced that the UK was suspending free trade agreement talks with Israel.
Lammy made the announcement in parliament on Tuesday in response to Israel's expanded military operations in Gaza.
The foreign secretary said the UK was imposing sanctions on key Israeli settler leaders and organisations, and his Middle East minister, Hamish Falconer, took the highly unusual step of summoning the Israeli ambassador.
This was a landmark moment, symbolically deeply significant, and it is sure to damage relations between Britain and Israel.
But it has done nothing to stop parliamentarians asking questions.
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Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is set to table legislation in parliament on Wednesday for an independent public inquiry into the UK's involvement in Israeli military operations in Gaza.
The independent MP first called for an inquiry in March, with the backing of 40 other MPs.
Corbyn's bill requires the inquiry to consider aspects of the UK's relations with Israel that Lammy did not mention in his remarks on Tuesday: "The sale, supply or use of weapons, surveillance aircraft and Royal Air Force bases."
'Bird's eye view of the genocide'
For months, British politicians have questioned the government about the role of a Royal Air Force base on the island of Cyprus, RAF Akrotiri, just a 40-minute flight from Tel Aviv.
From there, RAF shadow aircraft have conducted hundreds of surveillance flights over Gaza throughout Israel's war on the besieged enclave.
In response to questions about these flights, the UK's Ministry of Defence (MoD) has repeatedly insisted they are in support of "hostage rescue".
Just last Tuesday, at a clandestine party for Israel's Independence Day organised by the Israeli embassy at the British Museum, Defence Minister Maria Eagle boasted about "the RAF conducting surveillance flights over the Eastern Mediterranean in support of hostage rescue efforts".
A source with knowledge of British surveillance capabilities in the Middle East told MEE that the surveillance flights give Britain "a bird's-eye view of the genocide".
The source noted that the UK, a partner in the Five Eyes intelligence alliance that also includes the US, Australia, Canada and New Zealand, is the "number one gatherer of intelligence" in the Middle East.
"Britain knows exactly what is happening because of those flights. They have a better view than any journalist."
Earlier this year, Luke Pollard, minister for the armed forces, said during a debate in Westminster Hall in March that Britain "shares an important, long-standing and broad strategic partnership with the state of Israel".
He said that surveillance flights over Gaza are "solely in support of hostage rescue" and that information is passed on "only if we are satisfied that it will be used in accordance with international humanitarian law".
The MoD also said last year that it "would consider any formal request from the International Criminal Court to provide information relating to investigations into war crimes".
Questions blocked by government
However, there is significant secrecy surrounding much of what the RAF Akrotiri airbase in Cyprus is used for.
Last week, MEE reported that the UK government blocked Labour MP Kim Johnson from asking about Israeli bombers using the Cyprus airbase.
Johnson tabled a question asking: "What assessment has [the minister] made of the potential conflict of the Israeli government access to the use of RAF Akrotiri airbase in Cyprus for military options?"
But she was given the following message: "THE GOVERNMENT HAS BLOCKED QUESTIONS ON THE USE OF MILITARY BASES."
There is also evidence that military cargo has been airlifted from Akrotiri to Israel during its war on Gaza. This cargo has often travelled to Cyprus from US military bases in other parts of Europe.
Johnson told MEE: "It has been reported that RAF Akrotiri has been used as a base for Israeli bombers and has played an operational role for British intelligence that has been used by the Israelis since their invasion of Gaza. Parliamentarians must be allowed to scrutinise."
Independent MP Shockat Adam, speaking in the Westminster Hall debate in March, said: "In one year alone, from December 2023 to November 2024, the UK conducted 645 surveillance and recon missions, which amounts to almost two flights a day.
"We have been told that those flights were for surveillance and hostage rescue, but if that is the case, we must ask why we used RAF Atlas C1 aircraft, which are large enough to transport military vehicles and helicopters."
Pollard responded: "For operational security reasons, and as a matter of long-standing policy, the MoD does not confirm, deny or comment on any foreign national military aircraft movement or operation within UK airspace or on UK overseas bases."
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