The Shadow R1. (The Royal Air Force)
The United Kingdom will carry out unarmed surveillance flights over the Middle East to help Israel locate hostages held by the Hamas Movement in the Gaza Strip, the Ministry of Defence says.
Five British nationals are still missing since the October 7 attack on Israel and the UK government has not said how many could be held by Hamas.
“The safety of British nationals is our utmost priority,” the MoD said. “In support of the ongoing hostage rescue activity, the Ministry of Defence will conduct surveillance flights over the eastern Mediterranean, including operating in air space over Israel and Gaza.”
The ministry added that the surveillance aircraft will be unarmed and will be tasked solely to locate hostages held by Hamas in Gaza.
“Only information relating to hostage rescue will be passed to the relevant authorities responsible for hostage rescue,” the ministry said.
The aircraft will include Shadow R1s, a modified Beechcraft aircraft that the Royal Air Force uses for intelligence gathering, ministry officials said.
Last month, the Pentagon said that unarmed MQ-9 combat drones had been deployed over Gaza in “support of hostage recovery efforts”. The UK has been following the footsteps of the United States by providing Israel with unconditional support since the war in Gaza first broke out.
Fighting resumed in Gaza on December 1 after a week-long truce between Israel and Hamas, during which 80 Israeli hostages were released in exchange for 240 Palestinian prisoners. There are still thought to be more than 130 hostages in the Strip.
