UK MPs call for clarity on Gaza plane surveillance data

UK MPs have demanded assurances from the government that any surveillance information accumulated by Royal Air Force (RAF) flights over Gaza will be kept, Middle East Eye reported on September 18th.

The demand was part of a series of requests raised by the business and trade subcommittee on economic security, arms, and export controls. The subcommittee wrote to the business, defence, and Middle East ministers after a tense September 15th hearing on the UK’s arms exports to Israel.

While the government has repeatedly claimed that the hundreds of RAF flights over Gaza since December 2023 were conducted solely to detect the whereabouts of captives, experts argue that the flights may have inadvertently gathered evidence of possible Israeli war crimes.

In 2024, the Ministry of Defence suggested it might be willing to share such evidence with the International Criminal Court if requested. However, it remains unclear whether the data is being preserved, how it is being handled, or whether it has been provided to the Foreign Office to support its assessment of Israel’s actions, of which, the risk of being found to have committed genocide or violations of international humanitarian law come into play.

The MPs specifically asked whether the Foreign Office has ever requested access to the intelligence. “If the FCDO has requested this information, please detail what information was provided and how it informed the FCDO’s assessment,” Labour MP Liam Byrne, chair of the committee, wrote in a letter to Business and Trade Minister Chris Bryant, Defence Minister Luke Pollard, and Middle East Minister Hamish Falconer. “If the FCDO has not requested this information, please explain why not.”

The subcommittee has long pressed the government over its arms sales to Israel, particularly concerning F-35 fighter jets. The UK continues to export components to the global F-35 supply pool, which provides spare parts to Israel. Ministers have argued that halting exports to the pool is impossible without disrupting the global F-35 fleet and putting global security at risk.

Campaigners and rights groups, however, have accused the British government of violating its human rights obligations by continuing the exports. Still, in May 2025, the High Court upheld the legality of sending F-35 parts to the international pool.

During the September 15th hearing, the Department for Business and Trade said there are currently 55 active licences for military exports to Israel, nine of which relate to F-35 components.

Liberal Democrat MP Charlie Maynard accused ministers of being “wilfully ignorant” about the jets’ role in Gaza. “The Israeli Air Force itself has tweeted that, since October 2023, the service’s F-35s have flown more than 15,000 operational flight hours, taking part in thousands of sorties in all theatres,” Maynard said. “I do not understand how you can sit there and say the F-35s are not involved in Gaza when the Israeli Air Force is saying how many hours it has done.”

“We have planes going over there and can see bombs being dropped. We can join those dots, and we are choosing not to,” he added.

In their follow-up letter, the MPs asked ministers to confirm whether the UK government has questioned Israel directly about the use of F-35s in Gaza beyond the attack that killed Hamas commander Mohammed Deif. They also requested an in-depth breakdown of exports under the 55 active licences. The committee has requested a response by September 30th.

Middle East Eye, UK Government, UK Defence Journal, BBC, Maghrebi.org