Eurasia Press & News
‘I don’t really have time for this conversation’, Admiral Radakin tells Declassified when asked about his role in Israel’s genocide.
The chief of the defence staff – Britain’s most senior military officer – refused to answer questions yesterday about Royal Air Force (RAF) surveillance flights over Gaza and intelligence sharing with Israel.
Admiral Sir Tony Radakin declined to comment on whether the operations made him a participant in Israel’s campaign in Gaza, which is the subject of a genocide investigation by the UN’s top court.
Radakin was questioned about the operations by Declassified for more than two minutes as he walked along London’s Victoria Embankment from the Ministry of Defence to parliamentary offices at Portcullis House.
“I’m going to a public accounts committee hearing and I don’t really have time for this conversation”, the Admiral said, before refusing to engage further.
Despite heading to parliament to discuss the military’s budget, he ignored questions about how much the RAF has spent on more than 500 spy flights over Gaza since December 2023.
Two armed police officers who were escorting him then tried to block Declassified from speaking to Radakin but our questions continued.
The Admiral looked progressively unsettled as he was asked “Do you have concerns about sharing intelligence with the prime minister of a country that’s wanted by the International Criminal Court?”
Radakin, who met his IDF counterpart in Israel last year, was asked: “Are you a participant in Israel’s genocide, Admiral? Do you have blood on your hands?”
Public interest
Declassified decided to doorstep Radakin after months of getting few or no answers from the MoD press office or via freedom of information requests, and as the death toll in Gaza surpassed 50,000 people with the World Food Programme warning of starvation.
Backbench MPs have also struggled to glean details from ministers – even on the cost of UK military activities – while chairs of parliament’s powerful defence and foreign affairs committees have simply failed to quiz officials on this issue.
Government responses have been limited to claiming the surveillance flights are trying to help Israel find hostages held by Hamas.
However that explanation looked increasingly unlikely after flights continued during this year’s ceasefire while hostages were being released and their locations broadcast live on television.
There has been no stop to the operations since Benjamin Netanyahu broke the ceasefire and blocked all aid entering Gaza.
Concerns over food supplies led Keir Starmer’s Labour government to suspend some arms sales to Israel and yet intelligence sharing appears to have been unaffected.
Israel has only managed to free a handful of hostages through military raids in Gaza with the vast majority being released through negotiations.
On the rare occasions that Israel’s military has freed hostages, hundreds of Palestinians have been killed in the process, such as the Nuseirat camp massacre.
RAF spy flights were active around the time of that massacre but ministers have refused to answer questions about what intelligence was shared with Israel.
Last year the Ministry of Defence also rejected a freedom of information request from Declassified that sought surveillance footage from the day three British aid workers were killed by Israel in Gaza.
When asked about British intelligence sharing with Israel, Gazan lawyer Raji Sourani, director of the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, told Declassified that the UK government “are not complicit only but they are partners in the genocide”.
