A leak to the New York Times has shed more light on the secret role Britain is playing in Israel’s assault on Gaza.
MATT KENNARD
11 JUNE 2024
Senior Israeli official says covert British team gives “added value” to its intelligence operations
Official adds that Britain is providing intelligence from spy flights that “Israel cannot collect on its own”
UK Ministry of Defence tells Declassified: “We do not comment on speculation on intelligence matters”
A senior Israeli official has said that a British spy team has been deployed to Israel since it began bombing Gaza in October.
It is not known what UK agencies the personnel in the British team deployed in Israel belong to, although it is likely to involve the SAS, Britain’s elite special forces unit.
The Sun reported on 27 October that the SAS, which operates completely outside of democratic oversight, had been deployed to UK bases on Cyprus to – it was claimed – rescue British hostages held captive by Hamas.
The UK military’s “D-Notice” committee, which seeks to stop the media publishing information it claims would damage national security, requested on 28 October that all media editors not publish further information relating to SAS operations in Gaza.
Declassified previously revealed that 36 military transport aircraft have gone from RAF Akrotiri on Cyprus to Tel Aviv. Six were C-17s while 30 were A400M planes.
The UK military could have transported up to 4,300 personnel in these planes and this is likely to include SAS troops.
It is also likely that GCHQ and MI6 personnel are involved in the British team stationed in Israel.
declassifieduk.org
Much of the warfare now uses special forces, special operators, and mercenaries, evading public oversight. US avoided the oversight in Syria by setting up the Benghazi CIA Annex to oversee the distribution of weapons and trafficking of militants through a number of allied governments that maintained armories nearby, thereby avoiding violating the law against unauthorized direct weapons transfers. After Benghazi blew up, Obama issued an executive order authorizing the program to directly arm the mercenaries. |
