A British news website revealed that two British Air Force reconnaissance planes flew over the eastern Mediterranean during the prisoner exchange process in the Gaza Strip between the Palestinian factions and Israel.

The British website "Declassified" said on Sunday that "the British Royal Air Force sent two reconnaissance planes towards Gaza since the start of the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas."

The website, which conducts research on the work of military and intelligence institutions, added: "The two trips occurred during a prisoner exchange."

He continued: "The first spy flight took off from the British Akrotiri Air Base in Cyprus (Romania) at 15:32 (13:32 GMT), and returned at 20:59 local time (18:59 GMT) on January 19, the day the ceasefire came into effect."

"The plane turned off its transponders over the eastern Mediterranean, raising questions about what exactly it was doing in the air while Hamas was releasing the last remaining British captive, Emily Damary," he added.

He pointed out that "the second flight departed from Akrotiri base on January 25 at 11:26 local time (09:26 GMT) and returned to base at 17:44 (15:44 GMT), and again turned off the transponders over the eastern Mediterranean during the second prisoner exchange."

The website quoted the British Ministry of Defense as saying, "The aircraft did not enter Gaza airspace and operated at all times in accordance with the ceasefire and prisoner release agreement between Israel and Hamas."

However, Declassified notes that “this denial will not prevent the RAF’s Shadow R1 spy plane from collecting surveillance footage of prisoner movements from Israeli airspace or conducting further intelligence gathering to support Israel elsewhere.”

He added: "The British Ministry of Defense did not respond to our questions about whether the spy planes collected intelligence about Gaza from Israeli airspace."

The British Foreign Office said that the surveillance planes are "unarmed" and "their mission is only to locate the hostages," according to the same British website.

He considered that this response "raises serious questions about why spy planes continue to be sent to the region while prisoners are being released."

“For months, the government has said that RAF flights over Gaza are only used to locate prisoners, so why are these flights still continuing now that hostilities have stopped?” Zaki Sarraf, legal officer at the UK-based International Centre for Justice for Palestinians, was quoted as saying.

The news site notes that "the spy flights have been shrouded in secrecy since they were first sent to Gaza in December 2023, and activists are now calling for an investigation into intelligence sharing between Britain and Israel."

“The Shadow R1 drones used are specialized for target identification, and it is unclear why they were used in the first place, but their continued use – despite the prisoner exchange already underway – raises more serious concerns about their true purpose,” Sarraf added.

“The British people deserve clarity. There is an urgent need for a comprehensive and public inquiry into the UK’s complicity in Israel’s genocide against Palestinians, including these flights,” he continued. “Accountability is simply not negotiable. The stakes are too high.”

The British website stated that "the text of the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas indicates that in the first stage: all flight operations (military and reconnaissance) in the Gaza Strip must stop for 10 hours a day, and 12 hours on the days when prisoners are exchanged."

“This condition was designed not only to give the Palestinians a break from Israeli bombardment, but also to reassure Hamas that Israel would not collect intelligence on the prisoners’ movements and locations,” he said.

He added: "Since the United Kingdom is not a signatory to the ceasefire agreement, Hamas believes that the spy flights made Britain complicit with the Zionist occupation when they were launched in December 2023."

"Therefore, the decision to send spy flights to the region during the prisoner exchange may raise suspicions that Britain violated the spirit, if not the letter, of the ceasefire," he continued.

He added: "These spy flights also raise the possibility that Israeli forces will use surveillance footage provided by the UK to conduct future military operations in Gaza."

The British website also revealed that the Shadow R1 drones can collect information in order to "identify targets."

On January 19, a ceasefire and prisoner exchange agreement went into effect in three stages, each lasting 42 days. During the first, negotiations were held to start the second and third, with the mediation of Qatar and Egypt and the support of the United States.