A UK spy plane was sent from Cyprus in the direction of Gaza mere hours before the Government joined with 31 other countries to call for a ceasefire.
A Shadow R1 jet – used for “comprehensive intelligence gathering”, according to the Royal Air Force (RAF) website – was sent from Britain’s military base in Cyprus on Monday afternoon on an almost six-hour mission, data from flightradar24 shows.
There is a dark spot in the data: the plane flies out of RAF Akrotiri in the direction of Gaza before the flight tracking drops at 2.24pm (universal coordinated time, one hour behind British summer time) and resumes at 7.40pm as the plane heads back to Cyprus, landing at 8.07pm.
Its movements in that nearly five-hour window are unaccounted for.
The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has been asked whether the plane flew over Gaza – as other UK spy planes have done in the past in intelligence-gathering operations for Israel – and why.
Questions surround Britain’s military assistance to Israel in the form of reconnaissance flights flown over the besieged Palestinian territory.
Previously, the Government has insisted that they have been sent to help locate Israeli hostages held by Hamas.
But Foreign Secretary David Lammy on Tuesday morning insisted that the intelligence gathered is not being shared with the Israeli military.
During an appearance on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Lammy was asked: “What support is being given to the Israeli Air Force and the Israeli Defence Forces militarily by the UK? For example, RAF flights, which overfly Gaza, is information from those flights being given to the Israeli military to help them conduct their war in Gaza?”
He replied “no” before being pressed: “It’s been said before that that information was helping to locate and potentially release the hostages. So fine, that’s a commitment from you, a clear commitment that information from RAF military surveillance flights is not handed to Israel to help them, for example, identify targets in Gaza?”
This morning David Lammy was asked on BBC Radio 4 about the RAF spy flights over Gaza. “Information from surveillance flights is not being handed to Israel then…?” His response: “We are not assisting and would never do that…” Not just a war criminal but a liar too. pic.twitter.com/mXFbIybWEa
— Hamza Yusuf (@Hamza_a96) July 22, 2025
Lammy said: “We are not assisting and it would be quite wrong for the British government to assist in the prosecution of this war in Gaza, we are not doing that and would and would never do that.”
However, it has been reported in the past that UK intelligence was used in a mission to free hostages.
The New York Times reported last June that “the United States and Britain have been able to provide intelligence from the air and cyberspace that Israel cannot collect on its own”, citing an anonymous briefing from an Israeli intelligence official.
Lammy's statement in the Commons on Monday hailing the joint ceasefire statement was met with scepticism from MPs.
Tory former Cabinet minister Kit Malthouse (above) warned the Foreign Secretary he could find himself on trial for complicity in war crimes, saying: "Can he not see that his inaction – and frankly, cowardice – is making this country irrelevant?
"Can he also not see the personal risk to him, given our international obligations, that he may end up at The Hague because of his inaction?"
Labour's Andy McDonald added: "People want action, not more repetition of, 'We call for', 'We demand' and 'We urge'.
"We want action, and this is not action. We have had this so many times before. We have this terrible humanitarian crisis, the forcible transfer of civilians, and starvation by Israel."
Lammy replied: "As I have said, I regret that we are not in a place where we currently have a ceasefire, despite the international community calling for one and the pressure that exists. He is right: what we are seeing at the moment is an abomination, and I join him in those remarks."
