UK to Launch Surveillance Flights over Gaza to Locate Israeli Captives

December 3, 2023

Secretary of State for Defense, Grant Shapps. (Photo: Number 10, via Wikimedia Commons)

By Palestine Chronicle Staff  

The British Ministry of Defense said that the UK will conduct surveillance flights above Israel and Gaza to provide intelligence to Tel Aviv.

The UK will conduct surveillance flights above Israel and Gaza to locate Israeli captives held by the Palestinian Resistance Movement Hamas, the British Ministry of Defense announced on Saturday.

The ministry said in a statement that the surveillance aircraft “will be unarmed, do not have a combat role, and will be tasked solely to locate hostages.”

“Only information relating to hostage rescue will be passed to the relevant authorities responsible for hostage rescue,” the statement continued.

“The safety of British nationals is our utmost priority,” the ministry added.

Following the attack on southern Israel carried out by Hamas on October 7, the UK said that 12 British nationals had been killed and five more were missing.

According to the British newspaper The Guardian, “some of those are believed to have been kidnapped, but the government has not confirmed how many.”

The Guardian reported that a week after the beginning of the war, on October 7, “the UK government announced military units would be deployed to the eastern Mediterranean ‘to support Israel, reinforce regional stability and prevent escalation’.”

Hundreds of Palestinians have been killed by Israeli airstrikes across various areas of Gaza since Friday morning, as Israel resumed its aggression after a seven-day truce, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza.

A four-day truce, which began on Friday, November 24, was extended twice, and collapsed on Friday, December 1, at 7 am local time.

Since October 7, at least 16,000 Palestinians, including over 6,500 children and more than 4,000 women were killed, with another 40,652 wounded, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza.

(The Palestine Chronicle)