Crowds of angry Cypriots gathered at a British airbase on Sunday to protest the alleged flow of weapons to Israel for its brutal war in Gaza.
Akrotiri, near Limassol in southern Cyprus, is one of two military sites retained by the British army as part of the 1960 treaty that gave the island independence from colonial rule.
“The protest against the British base in Akrotiri is organized to condemn the transportation of weapons from British bases to support the military operations of the Israeli army in the Gaza Strip,” said Charis Pashias, head of the Peace Council from Cyprus.
Since the latest escalation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict began on October 7, local residents have seen a “daily” increase in the number of flights from Akrotiri, Pashias said.
The base is approximately a 40-minute flight from Tel Aviv.
People have also “become aware of the illegal presence of thousands of American troops now stationed in Akrotiri,” he added.
The British Ministry of Defense has released some information on RAF flights between Akrotiri and Israel, but refuses to specify what is being transported and will not release details of US activities from Cyprus.
Defense Minister Grant Shapps told Parliament on December 5 that the UK would provide “only defensive equipment, or equipment that may assist in the recovery of hostages” during the conflict.
The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported an increase in deliveries of equipment and weapons to Akrotiri.
About 40 heavy transport planes operated by the US Air Force landed there during the first 24 days of the war from US and NATO depots in Europe, according to Haaretz. Twenty other heavy aircraft from the British Royal Air Force arrived at the base during the same period, the newspaper added.
Declassified UK, a news site focusing on British foreign policy, revealed in November that RAF transport planes were making daily flights from Akrotiri to Tel Aviv between October 13 and 26.
In the two months leading up to October 7, Declassified UK found no record of British military flights from Akrotiri to Israel.
Commenting on the landing of an RAF-operated A400M military transport aircraft at Israel’s Nevatim air base on December 4, Meral Hussein-Ece, a British Liberal Democrat colleague of Turkish Cypriot origin, suggested that the aircraft was “unlikely to provide humanitarian aid.”
“It’s about time these British bases in Cyprus were returned to the Cypriots,” she posted on social media.
Ersin Tatar, who heads the Turkish-born administration that runs the northern third of the island, told Turkey’s official Anadolu news agency that the British are “interfering in the affairs of another country using these bases.
“Thanks to the bases it has acquired in the past, the United Kingdom can carry out military operations in these regions as it wishes,” Tatar said.
According to the Campaign Against Arms Trade, Israel is using F-35 planes to bomb Gaza. The aircraft is jointly produced by the United States, the United Kingdom and other partners.
Other weapons used in this densely populated area, produced in the United States and the United Kingdom, are the M270 rocket launchers and Paveway II guided missiles.
Equipment transported to and from Cyprus is frequently carried aboard the C-17 Globemaster, A400 Atlas and C-130 Hercules military transport aircraft. The Globemaster forms the logistical backbone of many Western armies and can transport loads of up to 77 tonnes. It is capable of delivering Black Hawk helicopters and even Abrams tanks.
Social media posts from the Israeli military show weapons delivered to Nevatim Air Base while Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport received equipment including armored vehicles.
“Our country cannot be used as a base for war operations”
At the same time, questions also arise over the extent to which the Greek Cypriot government, which controls the southern territory of the island, is kept informed of how Akrotiri and Dhekelia, the British base housing a US electronic intelligence station- British, are used in Gaza. war.
Armed Forces Minister James Heappey said last month that Britain was informing the Republic of Cyprus of flights to and from Akrotiri “where appropriate… although there is no formal obligation to do “.
Asked about supplies to Israel from Britain and the United States from Akrotiri in November, Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides said: “Such information does not exist, our country cannot be used as a basis for war operations. »
However, given that the UK’s ‘sovereignty zones’ are technically outside Cyprus, its response could be seen as not referring to it.
Kenny MacAskill, a British MP who raised questions in Parliament about Akrotiri’s alleged role in the Gaza war, said it was “shameful” that “British citizens and a sovereign state are being denied information on what is being done.”
He added: “The use of RAF Akrotiri appears to allow the UK to deny all information and complicity by claiming it is the US. Likewise, the US avoids disclosing it by claiming it belongs to the UK.”
Meanwhile, “it seems clear that supplies… are being transported to Israel… while war crimes are being carried out by that country.”
In recent days, the base has also been used to launch warplanes attacking Yemen, as had previously been the case in Iraq and Syria.
“The British base has been used repeatedly to supply weapons to Israel and now to bomb Yemen, a sovereign country,” said Lindsey German, head of the Stop the War coalition. Around 500 protesters carrying Palestinian and Republic of Cyprus flags marched to the gates of Akrotiri on Sunday.
“Cyprus is neither an aggressive US-NATO launchpad nor a British launchpad,” Pashias said. “We, the Cypriot people, do not want our country to be involved in any way in the bloody massacre taking place in the Gaza Strip.
