CYPRIOT communist party Akel called today on the island’s government to come clean over the use of British RAF bases on its territory to supply Israel’s bloody Gaza war.

The party, which is the main opposition party in the Republic of Cyprus, noted that the British government is refusing to answer questions from MPs on the use of RAF Akrotiri by the US Air Force. British site Declassified says the airfield has facilitated more than 30 military transport flights to Tel Aviv since the beginning of Israel’s bombardment of Gaza.

“There are increasing press reports that British and American aircraft are using British bases on our island to send arms to Israel, which has been committing ongoing crimes against the Palestinian people on the Gaza Strip for two months now,” the party said.

“The government owes answers to the Cypriot people, given that a just few weeks ago the president of the republic himself stated that Cyprus would not be used as a base for waging military operations.”

Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides has said the bases are not used to supply Israel but are just being prepared in case US and British forces need to evacuate anyone from the region. 

But reports of supply flights continue, and President Ersin Tatar of the Turkish Republic of North Cyprus — an internationally unrecognised territory established in the north after Turkey’s 1974 invasion — has used the issue to criticise the island’s legitimate government.

Akel asked: “Has the government asked Britain to confirm or deny this information?

“Is the government of our country not in a position to know what is happening on the territory of our country and to inform the Cypriot people? 

“Does the government understand the dangers that are being created for the country as a result of the use of Cypriot territory for the war raging in the Middle East?”

It said continued silence would provide “cover for the war being waged by the Israeli government against the Palestinian people” and said the RAF bases, which it described as a “colonial remnant,” must be stopped from facilitating Israeli war crimes.