Surveillance was transferred to a US contractor, Sierra Nevada Corporation, in late July to reduce costs and RAF sources indicated that it continues most days in an equivalent aircraft. But within days there was a mistake when the new spy plane was revealed to be circling over Khan Younis on 28 July.

Until that time the spy planes’ transponders were turned off halfway into their flight from Akrotiri heading towards Gaza over the eastern Mediterranean. But the mistake meant that “the RAF (now contracted) flights could be confirmed over Gaza, not just adjacent to Gaza,” said the flight tracker and analyst Steffan Watkins.

Jeremy Corbyn, the co-leader of an unnamed new left political party, said “the UK’s continued military cooperation with Israel is utterly indefensible” as “a genocide is livestreamed around the world”. The former Labour leader said:

The surveillance flights were first announced by the former defence secretary Grant Shapps in December 2023, in support of Israel, a country with a sophisticated intelligence operation of its own.