UK 'forced to use US plane to spy on Gaza due to lack of RAF aircraft'

Britain has been forced to hire an American plane to conduct spying missions over Gaza due to a shortage of RAF aircraft, it has been revealed.

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) is said to be paying a contractor based in Nevada to look for hostages in the Palestinian territory.

This was only revealed when a 'schoolboy error' saw the flight path of the US aircraft made publicly available last month, according to The Times.

The MoD has been conducting unarmed surveillance flights over Gaza to try and locate hostages since the attacks on Israel by Hamas on 7 October, 2023.

But RAF sources told the newspaper that none of its Shadow R1 aircraft are stationed at RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus, around 230 miles north of Gaza.