UK urged to share Gaza spy planes footage with ICC war crimes probe
The British government has been urged to share any evidence it may have collected of war crimes being committed in Gaza by Israeli forces with the International Criminal Court (ICC), as humanitarians warn that Palestinians in the north of the territory are being ethnically cleansed.
Last week, the defence ministry said it would consider sharing potential war crimes evidence, gathered by Royal Air Force (RAF) spy planes flying over Gaza, with the ICC, if asked.
Since early December, the RAF has flown at least 450 flights over Gaza using Shadow R1 aircraft deployed at RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus, according to Steffan Watkins, a Canadian research consultant who tracks aircraft and ship movements.
The defence ministry has not officially disclosed any details about the flights, but it has said the flights are unarmed and solely focused on gathering intelligence to help secure the release of hostages, including British nationals, seized on 7 October 2023.
The defence ministry told Middle East Eye: “As a matter of principle, we only provide intelligence to our allies where we are satisfied that it will be used in accordance with International Humanitarian Law, and in this instance, only information relating to hostage rescue is passed to the Israeli authorities.”
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But the department’s comments about potentially helping the ICC have raised questions about the scope of the intelligence it may have gathered inadvertently during missions and what it is doing with it.
Watkins said the plane has sensors that can pick up signals intelligence and an electro-optical sensor which offers “an unparalleled view”.
Flight data analysed by Watkins showed the RAF has regularly flown two sorties a day, six days a week, taking most Saturdays off.
However, on 8 June, the Saturday that four Israeli hostages were rescued from the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza in an operation that killed over 270 Palestinians, he said there was one Shadow R1 sortie.
“It seems implausible that they have flown hundreds of flights near or over Gaza over the past almost 11 months and not been witness to war crimes in the area,” he told MEE.
'It seems implausible that they have flown hundreds of flights near or over Gaza over the past almost 11 months and not been witness to war crimes'
- Steffan Watkins, research consultant
MEE asked the defence ministry if it had a process in place to gather and keep evidence of potential use to war crimes investigators and whether it would share the information with the government for use in its assessments of potential international humanitarian law violations committed in Gaza.
MEE also asked if the defence ministry had retained information collected over Gaza since December.
The defence ministry did not answer the questions. The Foreign Office did not respond when asked if it had received evidence from the defence ministry collected during the flights to inform its decision-making.
The ICC is currently carrying out an investigation into alleged war crimes committed in the occupied Palestinian territories since 2014, including the hostilities and violence following the 7 October Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel.
Asked if it planned to formally request that the British government share the apparent evidence, a spokesperson in the ICC’s Office of the Prosecutor, said: “In line with its investigative mandate, the Office is working with all relevant actors including national authorities, to collect information relevant to this investigation.”
The spokesperson declined to offer further details, citing its ongoing investigation and confidentiality concerns.
'Secure justice'
British MPs urged the defence ministry to work with the ICC and also ensure that evidence is preserved.
Brendan O’Hara, the Scottish National Party’s spokesperson for the Middle East, told MEE it was “inconceivable”, given the scale of the destruction and death in Gaza, that the flights “do not contain footage which would be of significant interest to the investigators from the International Criminal Court”.
“Not only is it incumbent therefore on the MoD to cooperate fully with any ICC investigation, as and when requested, but it is essential also that all information on potential violations of international law which they currently have, and which may be relevant to the war crimes investigators, be gathered and retained until it is needed,” he said.
Labour MP Rachael Maskell told MEE: “It is crucial that any intelligence of breaches of international law are shared with the courts so they can assess the evidence and secure justice.”
“I trust that the UK government is working with the international courts to aid them in their work.”
Martin Butcher, policy adviser on arms and conflict for Oxfam, said: "If the UK government has evidence which may be beneficial to an investigation by the International Criminal Court (ICC) into war crimes and crimes against humanity, it has a duty to share this information."
"Over the past year, the unprecedented Israeli onslaught has utterly devastated the lives of people in Gaza and the situation they are facing is beyond catastrophic," Butcher told MEE.
“All parties must abide by international humanitarian law and be held to account where violations are committed."
Zaki Sarraf, legal officer with the International Centre of Justice for Palestinians, said the UK is duty-bound to assist the ICC as and when requested, but that it must also "take a proactive role in identifying evidence of war crimes and ensuring war criminals are held accountable".
"With UK spy planes having been flown at the time of documented atrocities, such as the World Central Kitchen strikes and the Nuseirat camp massacre, it seems impossible that the FCDO has been unable to conclude that there is sufficient evidence that Israel's conduct in Gaza has violated IHL," Sarraf said.
Watkins, who has spent hours logging the RAF flights, questioned why the defence ministry has yet to put any relevant evidence it may have collected into the public domain.
“The MoD can choose to declassify any of their footage of rockets being fired at Israel by any faction, or IDF operations obliterating civilian infrastructure in Gaza, without compromising British national security, and choose not to,” he said.
“The UK MoD could share clips of audio they've intercepted over the past 11 months between Hamas or other parties that show their guilt in atrocities, or incidentally collected evidence of the IDF's disregard for the Geneva Convention, and choose not to.”
He added: “I think the British press needs to look inward about how they let the past 11 months of overt reconnaissance flights of a warzone rife with atrocities be ignored, despite the rest of the world knowing what was going on.”
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