TEHRAN (Iran News) –Campaigners and anti-war advocates in the UK have condemned the British government’s military and intelligence support for the devastating Israeli war on Gaza and its war crimes in the besieged enclave.

Calls have been made for the International Criminal Court (ICC) to question the roles of British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, Home Secretary James Cleverly, and Defense Secretary Grant Shapps over this support.

On October 13, Britain announced it was deploying military assets to the eastern Mediterranean to “support” the Israeli regime as it bombarded Gaza.

This involved naval patrol and surveillance aircraft whose duties included searching for any transfer of weapons to the Palestinian resistance. A Royal Navy task group was also deployed to the eastern Mediterranean.

The military package also includes two warships, three helicopters and special forces who are “on standby to deliver practical support to Israel”.

The UK has a large air base in Akrotiri, Cyprus, 370 kilometers from Gaza, where seven British Typhoon warplanes are stationed.

Calls have been made for the ICC to investigate the precise role that these UK military assets have played in the Israeli war on Gaza.

In December 2020, a military cooperation agreement was signed between Britain and the Israeli regime.

The UK Ministry of Defense described the deal that was struck as an “important piece of defense diplomacy” that “strengthens” the military relationship between the two sides.

Despite this, the British parliament and the public have never seen the details or nature of this agreement.

The Ministry of Defense has refused to publish it and has only mentioned it briefly once in parliament, in response to a question from an MP.

The military accord was inked by the then chief of the defense staff Nick Carter and his Israeli counterpart chief of general staff, Aviv Kohavi.

At the time, it was described as an “organizing mechanism for our relationship” which “formalizes our defense relationship”. It added the cooperation agreement provides “a mechanism for planning our joint activity, allowing collaboration on a number of areas”.

Critics are suspicious as to why this secret agreement has been placed as a high-security classification, arguing that it is possible the accord “strengthens” ties between the two militaries to a level that puts some obligations on the UK to defend the Israeli regime by providing information, intelligence or material support.

Demands have been made for a copy of the secret documents to be made public to analyze the British military’s role in the Israeli war on Gaza.

On October 27?, the British newspaper, The Sun, reported that the UK Special Air Service (SAS), an elite special forces unit, is on “standby” in Cyprus to allegedly rescue British captives in Gaza.

The leak of this information is believed to have come from the British military, which carefully manages its media reports. It is possible, however, that the SAS may also have an advisory, military or even combat role in support of the Israeli regime.

On October 28, the UK military’s “D-Notice” committee, which prevents the media from publishing reports, claimed they hurt national security and requested all media organizations to stop reporting on any information linking the SAS to the war on Gaza.

The UK’s so-called Sovereign Base Areas (SBA) in Cyprus are home to important sites for Britain’s largest spy agency GCHQ.

Its communications espionage facility at Ayios Nikolaos in the Eastern SBA sits 350 kilometers from Gaza and has a close relationship with the Israeli regime.

Documents leaked by U.S. whistleblower Edward Snowden in 2013 showed the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) was providing data to its counterpart, the Israeli SIGINT National Unit (ISNU), which monitors and targets Palestinians.

A key partner of the NSA and ISNU was GCHQ, which fed the Israelis communications intelligence it collected.

The Snowden documents show that during the Israeli war on Gaza in 2009, which killed some 1,400 Palestinians, including 344 children, GCHQ played a major role in sharing information with the Israeli regime on Palestinians.

The then director of GCHQ, Robert Hannigan, said in 2017 that his organization had a “strong partnership with our Israeli counterparts in signals intelligence” and that “we are building on an excellent cyber relationship with a range of Israeli bodies”.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the BBC in 2017 that there was “intense cooperation between our security intelligence agencies”.
The question is to what degree is GCHQ sharing intelligence with its Israeli counterparts in the current onslaught on Gaza?

Furthermore, the British government has said it has permanent military personnel in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories, all based in the British embassy in Tel Aviv.

The UK Ministry of Defense has said they “carry out key activities in defense engagement and diplomacy”.

Meanwhile, the Israeli military has personnel on duty in Britain for liaison and training purposes, according to the UK.

The UK Ministry of Defense is also a key player in a multimillion-pound British aid project in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

The project is funded by the £1.3bn Conflict, Security and Stability Fund, which a parliamentary committee has said does not “meet the needs of UK national security”.

Britain has refused to disclose the location and numbers of these UK military personnel for security reasons.

But Declassified UK, which investigates Britain’s military and intelligence agencies, has revealed the team consists of British military personnel from the army and air force and is led by a brigadier.

Campaigners want to know what role these UK personnel are playing in the current war on Gaza.

Sunak has defended the regime’s collective punishment of Gaza and its evacuation order to forcefully displace Palestinians in Gaza. He has also traveled to Tel Aviv to support the Israeli war.

Cleverly oversees the UK’s foreign intelligence services, and Shapps oversees the Ministry of Defense.

The UK has also vetoed multiple UN Security Council resolutions in favor of the Israeli war on Gaza.

Military support by the UK for the Israeli military has long been a controversial topic among the British public.

The UK allows Israeli arms companies to operate on its territory and continues to do so despite the massacres the regime is committing against Palestinian civilians on a daily basis since the outbreak of the regime’s war on Gaza.

According to the British organization Global Legal Action Network, the UK has consistently approved the sale of lethal weapons to the Israeli military and, in recent days, has promised major support for the regime’s decimation of Gaza.

The UK has granted licenses for the sale of British weapons to the Israeli military under a wide range of categories in recent years.

Since 2015, the Conservative government has authorized at least £472 million in limited-value license grants and 58 unlimited-value “open” licenses to the Israeli regime.

Global Legal Action Network argues that these “open” licenses lack any transparency for the public and allow for an unlimited quantity of weapons to be shipped to the Israeli military.

Among these weapons include components for the F35 stealth combat aircraft currently being used in the bombardment of Gaza, as well as body armour, military communications equipment, military electronic equipment, components for military radars and targeting equipment, naval vessel components, and much more.

The group, together with the Palestinian human rights organization, Al-Haq, took legal action on Wednesday in a bid to halt UK weapons sales to the Israeli regime over what they argue are internationally banned attacks by the Israeli military on civilians who are trapped and under siege in Gaza.

The legal challenge has been taken to the British High Court, which has been urged to intervene after requests for the government to suspend arms exports were refused.

This comes as Hamas on Sunday condemned a decision by the UK to conduct surveillance flights over Gaza and provide intelligence to Tel Aviv, saying this amounted to military involvement in the “genocidal” war on Gaza.

Britain’s “intention to carry out intelligence flights over the Gaza Strip makes it an accomplice to the Zionist occupation in its crimes, and responsible for the massacres to which our Palestinian people are subjected,” the Palestinian resistance group said in a statement.

Calling the declaration “the sin of the century,” the group said Britain was “committing another wrong and reminding the world of its shameful colonial past.”

The UK announced the decision on Saturday, claiming the drone flights would be part of efforts to rescue Israeli hostages held in the Gaza Strip.

Experts believe the British drones will play a combat role alongside the Israeli military’s aerial bombardment of the Palestinian enclave.

According to Hamas, the surveillance flights over the Gaza Strip will “put the British government at enmity with our people and all those who reject the Zionist aggression.”

It called on Britain to “rescind its direct military participation and political and financial support for the genocidal war against Gaza.”