Britain Flew Drone Over Lebanon As Israel Massacred Civilians

The UK flew a drone over Baalbek, Lebanon as Israel massacred 18 people and injured 28 others there on Wednesday, flight data shows. 

The flight, first reported on by independent journalist Matt Kennard, left the RAF Akrotiri airbase in Cyprus at 8:22am local time, just hours before Israel’s massive and intense bombardment of civilian areas across Lebanon, which killed at least 303 people, including many children.

The General Atomics Protector RG1 drone circled in the sky near Baalbek for hours, data from AirNav Radar shows. The model is equipped with missiles and bombs and can be used for “surveillance, search and rescue, and armed operations”, according to the RAF’s website. 

Prime minister Keir Starmer has repeatedly, and falsely, claimed that the UK’s only involvement in the war in the Middle East since 28 February is defensive. 

Wednesday’s drone flight appears to mirror a pattern first seen at the height of Israel’s genocide in Gaza, when Starmer’s government flew numerous surveillance flights over the enclave on behalf of the apartheid state. 

Those flights led many observers to conclude that he was directly complicit in the atrocities in Gaza.

Wednesday’s attacks on Lebanon violated a ceasefire agreement reached just hours earlier between the US and Iran and prompted accusations of state-led terror by Israel. 

The Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention updated its Red Flag alert for Lebanon after the killings. The alerts serve as warnings for potential genocide in a given region.  

“Today’s attacks on Lebanon were a clear atrocity crime no matter how Israel tries to justify it,” the institute said on Wednesday.