Labour Minister Defends RAF Gaza Surveillance Flights Amid Growing Scrutiny of UK-Israel Relationship

Maria Eagle has been criticised for delivering a speech supporting Israel as other world leaders this week spoke out vehemently against the country and as court proceeding began against the UK Government for exporting fighter jet parts to the state.

Labour‘s Minister of State for Defence Procurement and Industry spoke at a private event hosted at the British Museum on Wednesday for Israel Independence Day and was filmed saying the UK “stood with Israel, with the RAF conducting surveillance flights over the Eastern Mediterranean”. 

The RAF’s flights over Palestinian territory have faced significant scrutiny. The charity Action on Armed Violence (AOAV) published a report in March that found that 518 RAF surveillance flights over the occupied Palestinian territories took place between 3 December 2023 and 27 March 2025. 

The flights took place from RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus using Shadow R1 aircraft which has “target acquisition” capacities according to the RAF. The RAF ran 24 flights in the two weeks before Israel’s attack on the Nuseirat refugee camp which killed 274 Palestinians and injured 700. 

The UK Government has refused to disclose details about the flights, including whether intelligence has been passed to Israel for targeting purposes. 

Energy Embargo for Palestine, who protested outside the Independence Day event, said Eagle’s “acceptance of an invitation and speech at an Israeli embassy event reflects a horrifying link between a UK Government Minister responsible for exporting arms to a state committing genocide”.

The group added: “British RAF surveillance flights over Gaza have provided crucial intelligence for Israel to enact its brutal genocide on Palestinians. Maria Eagle’s proud celebration of these flights demonstrates her allegiance to a jingoistic nationalism premised upon strengthening Britain’s military industrial complex and collusion with a state enacting genocide. Maria Eagle is the minister of Defence Procurement and Industry – effectively, she is the buyer and seller of arms for the British state. Her speech comes on the same day the UK Government was brought to court by GLAN and Al-Haq for its export of F-35 jet parts to Israel.”

Proceedings against the UK Government began in the High Court this week over the export of parts of the F-35 fighter jet to Israel. The Guardian reported that the position of the UK Government’s lawyers is to argue that the exports are more important than stopping genocide. 

Eagle’s statement raises further questions — posed by the AOAV report — as to whether or not information gathered on those RAF surveillance flights was shared with Israel, and whether it contributed to war crimes and civilian casualties. 

Eagle’s statement of support for Israel, in which she also stated that “we want to see the humanitarian situation improve, what we hope for and are working for is a deal which brings a stop to the fighting, enables the release of all hostages, gets the aid flowing and establishes a credible and irreversible path to peace” comes as several other Western states took aim at Israel.

Yesterday, Pedro Sanchez, Spain’s centre-left Prime Minister stated, in reference to Israel, that Spain “does not do business with a genocidal state”. And, in a televised interview on Tuesday, French president, Emmanuel Macron referred to Israel’s actions in Gaza as “shameful and unacceptable” and floated a revision of the cooperation treaty between the EU and Tel Aviv. 

Eagle’s comments also follow increased scrutiny of the UK Government’s material support for Israel in the form of arms shipments and military aid.

Recently, several MPs called for Foreign Secretary David Lammy to testify before parliament to answer the allegation, made in a new report, that on Britain’s arms shipments, he had mislead the House of Commons by stating in September 2024 that “much of what we send [to Israel] is defensive in nature” such as “helmet[s] or goggles”, and “not what we describe routinely as arms”. 

Eagle also came under scrutiny herself over F-35 exports to Israel in the same report. She stated in November 2024 that “in keeping with the Government’s announcement on arms exports in September [2024], there have been no exports of F-35 parts direct to Israel via RAF Marham since the licensing suspension.”

Evidence suggests these transfers did not stop in September. The import data shows a further thirteen courier shipments of aircraft parts under “Customs Code 88” directly from the UK to Israel taking place from October 2024 to March 2025.

Eleven of the shipments were of items labelled as “parts of airplanes, helicopters, or unmanned aircraft”. The Foreign Office has refused to confirm if these were parts of the F-35. 

Several high profile celebrities and political figures also attended the Independence Day event, including Nigel Farage and Reform MPs Richard Tice and Sarah Pochin, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch, Julia Hartley Brewer, Matthew Goodwin, comedian Jimmy Carr, and Daily Mail Reporter Sabrina Miller.

 Also in attendance were Tizip Hotevely, the controversial Israeli ambassador to the UK, who called for the annexation of the West Bank by Israel as a Likud MP, and who referred, in 2021, to the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians during the Nakba as an “Arab lie”,  and Robert Stearns, a “Christian Zionist” influencer who has called for the displacement of the Palestinian people in Gaza into Egypt and Jordan. 

A Ministry of Defence spokesperson said: “The UK’s operational mandate has been narrowly defined to focus on securing the release of the hostages only, including British nationals.

“Only information relating to hostage rescue and recovery has been passed to the Israeli authorities.”