Filenews 12 December 2025
A new Declassified UK documentary reveals new details about Britain's military cooperation with Israel during the genocide in Gaza.
Published on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fk3t28TiAc on Thursday night, Britain's Gaza Spy Flight Scandal follows Declassified's Phil Miller and Alex Morris in Cyprus in September, where they captured footage outside the British Air Force Air Base, Royal Air Force Akrotiri, just a 40-minute flight from Tel Aviv.
From there, RAF aircraft have carried out hundreds of surveillance flights over Gaza throughout Israel's war against the blockaded enclave.
As the middleeasteye.net report states, the British Ministry of Defense (MoD) repeatedly insists that the flights are aimed solely at "hostage rescue support".
However, these operations are shrouded in a significant veil of secrecy, and it has been revealed in the past two years that Britain has shared information with Israel and recorded footage of Gaza on days when Israeli strikes killed British citizens.
What the documentary reveals
This new film makes a series of important revelations. It includes the first shots of an American spy plane — leased by the RAF — taking off from the base for a flight over Gaza.
Earlier this year, after hundreds of RAF flights over Gaza, it became known that the British army had begun recruiting Americans to carry out the missions.
The documentary finds that up to 116 additional surveillance missions have been carried out by the Americans, in addition to those that were known.
Declassified cites sources who report that the spy planes could produce high-definition images of Gaza through their radar systems and share them with Israel in real time.
Footage from the day of the Israeli strike on British citizens
The film examines the case of James Henderson, a former Marine, who was in a World Central Kitchen convoy in Gaza when he was hit by an Israeli strike on April 1, 2024.
The British Ministry of Defence has been in possession of footage of Gaza from the day Henderson was killed, along with six other international humanitarian workers, recorded by an RAF aircraft. However, he refuses to release the material, citing national security exceptions.
Henderson's father, Neil, said in the Declassified documentary that he "cannot understand how these footage can affect British security."
He calls the MoD's refusal to publish them an "insult".
"If they were made public, they would give us a much better understanding of what was happening on the ground," he says.
"I believe they would prove that the Israelis were watching them... I really believe that they were deliberately targeted."
In August, the Middle East Eye asked the British Ministry of Defense (MoD), under the Freedom of Information Act, if it possessed footage of two Israeli strikes in Gaza involving British citizens or volunteers at British charities.
The MoD declined to disclose the information, again citing national security and defense exceptions.
One of those strikes killed eight volunteers working for the British charity Al-Khair Foundation in March while setting up tents for displaced Palestinians in Beit Lahia, in northern Gaza.
"They are going on a death mission"
Another critical issue surrounding surveillance flights is the MoD's disputed claim that the information is used solely for the rescue of hostages.
Steve Masters, a former RAF technician, who speaks in the documentary, points out that Britain cannot control how Israel uses the information it receives.
He says the footage shared with Israel "could just as easily be used to identify targets."
Another theme of the film is the dissatisfaction in Cyprus with the presence of the RAF and its role in supporting Israel. Declassified presents a protest by Cypriot residents against the base.
Melanie Steliou, who accompanies reporters around the British base, says: "The thought that every time a plane takes off, people can die and children die... It's painful and infuriating. And they take off from here! They are going on a death mission."
