Royal Air Force chief avoids Gaza questions as Israeli counterpart visits UK

Britain’s top air force officer has angrily avoided questions about Gaza, while his colleague pushed a journalist out of the way.

Air chief marshal Sir Rich Knighton hurried to a taxi outside Savoy Place in central London on Thursday, while being grilled by Declassified about his aerial surveillance of the conflict.

Knighton had just finished hosting a global gathering of air force commanders – sponsored by arms firms with ‘gold’ tickets costing £995 – where he spoke about the lessons of a Tom Clancy novel.

As chief of the air staff, Knighton has direct access to prime minister Keir Starmer and is in charge of Royal Air Force (RAF) spy planes over Gaza.

There have been more than 500 surveillance flights since their launch in December 2023, with Knighton visiting Israel to meet his counterpart Tomer Bar the following month, by which point 70% of Gaza’s infrastructure had already been destroyed.

Knighton only spoke to say the conference had been “great, thank you” before falling silent as Declassified asked: “Why are you still sharing intelligence with the Israeli military?”

His colleague, squadron leader Ryan Kerr, repeatedly tried to stop the interview by shoving our reporter.

As Knighton neared his car, we asked again: “Why are you still sharing intelligence with Benjamin Netanyahu while he’s wanted by the international criminal court for war crimes in Gaza?”

His private secretary, Andie Schaer, blocked one of our cameras before declining to comment on behalf of her boss.

Alanah Donnell, the RAF’s director of communications, said “there’s no interviews here today”.

‘Star of the show’

As Knighton’s car sped away, news broke that his Israeli opposite number, Major General Bar, had touched down at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire to attend a nearby airshow the next day.

Israeli public broadcaster Kan said Bar was visiting England for “meetings with air force commanders…on the edge of the [Royal International] Air Tattoo event” at Fairford, where many delegates at the London conference seemed to be headed.

Although the Tattoo’s website claimed Israel’s military was not participating, and its press office declined to comment, Kan said Bar was “the ‘star’ of the event” due to his recent experience of bombing Iran.

Bar is also responsible for Israel’s aerial bombardment of Gaza which has devastated the coastal strip and left tens of thousands of Palestinians dead.

He ordered pilots returning from air strikes on Iran to drop any spare bombs on Gaza before landing.

When asked if Bar was attending the airshow, Britain’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) told Declassified: “Israel remains a key partner”.

The spokesperson added: “The Royal International Air Tattoo is a world-leading airshow and we routinely host a large number of dignitaries from across the globe”.

Declassified pressed the MoD and Foreign Office on whether Bar was granted “special mission” immunity for his visit, which would shield him from arrest for war crimes under universal jurisdiction legislation.

Both departments refused to respond to Declassified’s questions, though it seems unlikely that Bar would have agreed to visit without diplomatic protection from prosecution.

The IDF’s former chief of staff, Herzi Halevi, was given “special mission” status to visit Britain last November, with former war minister Benny Gantz also receiving immunity in March 2024.

‘Human collapse’

Officially, UK spy flights over Gaza are only meant to share intelligence with Israel that might relate to hostage rescue.

But the sweeping nature of Netanyahu’s campaign in Gaza has led to concerns that British surveillance could be used to attack civilian targets.

The UK’s Ministry of Defence, which repeatedly refused an on-camera interview with Knighton, has not clarified which hostages – if any – it has helped Israel to find.

Foreign secretary David Lammy appeared to recognise the shortcomings of surveillance flights, telling parliament this May: “Nearly all the hostages have been freed through negotiations, not military force.”

While 197 hostages have been released in ceasefire deals, only eight have been freed so far by Israeli troops.

Four of those were rescued in an operation at Nuseirat refugee camp last June in which 270 Palestinians were reportedly killed.

An eye witness told Declassified: “There was no safe place. In front of us was a young man selling sweets – suddenly, a quadcopter drone shot him in the head.

“His brain spilled out before my eyes. I couldn’t hold myself together. It was a moment of human collapse I haven’t recovered from to this day.”

There was a surge in RAF spy flights over Gaza in the fortnight before the Nuseirat massacre and on the day itself, according to publicly available flight tracking data reviewed by Action on Armed Violence.

But the MoD has refused to inform parliament whether “information gathered by UK surveillance aircraft and provided to the Israeli military” was used in the Nuseirat operation.

Defence minister Luke Pollard said he could not comment on “detailed intelligence matters for operational security reasons”.

High flyer

Despite the controversy around these operations, Knighton will be promoted to chief of the defence staff in September, relieving Admiral Radakin as Britain’s top military officer.

Both Radakin and Knighton have refused to comment on Gaza spy flights while being ‘doorstepped’ by Declassified.

Although ministers have claimed British intelligence cannot be used by Israel to commit war crimes, the Foreign Office only believes one out of over 500 Israeli air strikes in Gaza that it has reviewed was “possibly” a war crime.

That was the strike which killed three British aid workers – military veterans John Chapman, James Kirby and James ‘Jim’ Henderson.

Even in that case, the MoD refuses to hand over its footage from a surveillance plane that was over Gaza on the day of the massacre.

As well as supporting Israel, Knighton sent RAF Voyager aircraft to refuel US jets during President Donald Trump’s attacks on Yemen this year in which hundreds of civilians were killed.

Israeli air force flights have repeatedly landed at RAF Brize Norton since 7 October 2023, sparking concerns about the base’s role in the conflict.

Four people have been remanded in custody until January 2027 for allegedly vandalising RAF Voyagers at Brize Norton, which resulted in the group Palestine Action being proscribed as a terrorist organisation.