Exclusive: Gaza victim demands justice over British spy flights

On the evening of 12 December 2024, Israeli warplanes reduced the Sheikh Ali family home near a post office in Nuseirat, central Gaza, to rubble.

Three floors were turned in seconds to a pit filled with debris, and the voices of the children who once filled the space with laughter and play fell silent forever.

There were approximately 60 people in the house at the time, most of them women and children. That night 34 of them were killed and many others injured.

Among the survivors was a member of the Sheikh Ali family, who spoke to Declassified on condition of anonymity due to Israel’s ongoing war in Gaza.

“There were several families in the house: the Sheikh Ali family, the Qassas family, and the Matar family. All of us had gathered in our three-story home, around 55 to 60 people,” he said, his voice trembling with pain.

“We were taking shelter in each other’s presence from the relentless bombing, trying to create a sense of safety through our closeness in the midst of this hell.”

He continued: “There was no warning at all, no phone call, no alert. Suddenly, at exactly 8:30pm, several missiles fired by Israeli warplanes struck the house and everything collapsed on top of us.”

Eyes in the sky

What he did not know was that the night before this massacre, two spy planes took off from a British air base on Cyprus 200 miles away and flew towards Gaza.

The first plane was owned by Britain’s Royal Air Force (RAF) and had the call sign ZZ419. It turned off its transponder and went dark as it approached Gaza’s coast, a protocol observed by almost every British surveillance mission over the strip.

But the second plane – owned by a US company and with callsign Crook 11 – failed to turn off its tracker, leaving its exact route visible online.

Recently discovered flight data shows it circled around Nuseirat at 11pm local time for about 20 minutes before heading back to Cyprus.

At one point it flew almost directly above the Sheikh Ali family’s home, passing just three streets away.

Flight data from 11 December 2024 shows the plane flew close to Nuseirat post office where Israel bombed a house (inset) the next night. (Images: ADS-B Exchange, Alamy)

Britain’s Ministry of Defence twice refused to tell Declassified whether Crook 11 was operating on behalf of the RAF, who share intelligence from Gaza with Israel.

The next day, the RAF plane ZZ419 spent around two hours near Gaza between 6-8pm, hiding its precise location by turning off its transponder.

Then at 8.30pm, Israel’s air force flew over Nuseirat and bombed the Sheikh Ali home. They later claimed to have targeted a senior – but unnamed – member of the group Islamic Jihad.

Whoever they were supposedly targeting, dozens were killed. “Bodies and fragments were scattered over and beneath the rubble,” the survivor told Declassified.

“The faces of dead children were crushed in a way that no mind or heart can describe. To this day, even after all this time, some bodies remain trapped under the rubble, unrecovered.”

The survivors had no choice but to wait for the civil defence teams. They arrived with old vehicles and simple hand tools, as heavy equipment was unavailable.

“They tried with their hands and small crowbars to lift the stones and concrete off the bodies of our loved ones. It was a scene beyond human endurance,” he said.

As survivors clung to life, Crook 11 returned to the coast of Gaza around 11pm local time to conduct more surveillance.

“If there is evidence that British reconnaissance planes participated in the massacre committed against us, then Britain is complicit in the genocide,” the survivor told Declassified.

“It must be held accountable internationally, just as Israel must be. Our blood is not cheap, and justice must reach everyone who contributed to the killing of our families.”

Between life and death for eight days

Britain’s Ministry of Defence insists the surveillance flights it sends over Gaza – more than 600 since 2023 – are purely looking for hostages held by Hamas and other armed groups.

But such assurances are cold comfort to civilians hit by Israeli air strikes. The Sheikh Ali family member who spoke to Declassified said: “When they pulled me out from under the rubble, I was between life and death. I spent a full eight days in intensive care.

“I suffered from a ruptured spleen and multiple fractures in my rib cage, in addition to fractures in my shoulder blade. My lungs were severely damaged due to inhaling toxic gases released from the rockets, and my body was covered with wounds all over.”

After leaving hospital, the suffering did not end; rather, a new journey of pain and hardship began: “My health condition is still very difficult. I have a 50% fracture in my shoulder that requires a long time to heal.

“I cannot walk even a short distance without feeling suffocated. Every breath reminds me that I miraculously escaped death, but I carry scars that will never fully heal.”

Alongside the pain in his body, the survivor is overwhelmed by the sense of loss. He did not just lose a home, but also family members, neighbours, and friends.

“I look around and see none of the faces I used to see every morning. The children who used to fill the house with noise and laughter are gone.

“The women who used to cook us dinner, and the elders who used to tell stories… all of them have left. Only I remain, with a broken body and a heavy heart,” the survivor said.

Yet, despite everything, he insists on telling his testimony so that the truth is not erased.