BRITAIN has been accused of actively participating in genocide after an Israeli plane that refuelled at RAF Brize Norton went on to help commit a war crime — killing 73 people.

Investigative journalist Matt Kennard accused the government not only of being “complicit” but of active “participation” in the genocide in Gaza.

Discussing the use of RAF bases in the UK and Cyprus for intelligence and logistical support of Israeli military operations, he said: “This is not complicity, this is participation.

“The UK government, through its different military and intelligence agencies, has been a participant in [Israel’s military operations].”

Giving evidence at the Jeremy Corbyn-backed Gaza Tribunal today along with legal experts, researchers and doctors, Mr Kennard discussed instances of the RAF’s co-operation in Israeli war crimes.

In one case, an Israeli refuelling plane headed to Gaza from the US stopped at the RAF Brize Norton base before going on to help “commit a war crime.”

He said: “We found out that Israeli Air Force refuelling planes, who refuel fighter jets over Gaza, were landing in the UK, at RAF Brize Norton.

“In October 2024, there was a massacre in Beit Lahiya. One of these refuelling planes likely committed a war crime that killed 73 people — that plane had been in Britain four days before.”

RAF Brize Norton garnered media attention after members of the group Palestine Action broke into the base and smeared paint on jets in protest against the air force’s alleged support of Israeli forces.

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper went on to proscribe the group as a terror organisation in July.

Mr Kennard also said that RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus has served as the base for British and US-contracted flights which fly above the Gaza Strip, and are thought to provide intelligence to the Israeli military.

British reconnaissance flights accounted for nearly half (47 per cent) of all of those made over Gaza since October 2023, according to a recent investigation by Al Jazeera.

Israel was only found to have conducted 20 per cent of the 16,000 total missions.

Mr Kennard said: “Once [this intelligence] is in Israel’s hands, they can use it for whatever they want.”

A US-contracted flight over the southern city of Khan Younis in December 2024, the night before Israeli bombing killed 30 Palestinians, indicated intelligence flights from the British base were “being used for fighting on the ground,” according to the journalist.

Britain’s intelligence and military support to Israel since October 7, as well as the continued authorisation of components of F35 jets, “crosses the line into participation,” Mr Kennard added.

Forz Khan, the lawyer who represented the family of Jim Henderson, an aid worker with World Central Kitchen who was killed in April 2024, said it was ”highly likely that Sir Keir Starmer is guilty of genocide.”

Considering the government’s failure to totally ban the sale of arms and to stop intelligence sharing with Israel, he said: “It is highly likely the Prime Minister of this country is guilty of genocide.

“It is highly likely that John Healey, the Defence Secretary, is guilty of genocide. And others who provide support, some of them civil servants, will be found guilty should they be tried.

“Not only has it not fulfilled its legal obligations, the United Kingdom government has totally and utterly breached international criminal law —and UK criminal law— and its legal obligations, as well as assisted genocide.”

Mr Khan also said the government had footage which could have provided further information concerning the killing of Mr Henderson, from an RAF surveillance flight said to be operating at the scene.

He added that it is “absolutely true” that the government is more interested in protecting Isreal than it is in finding the truth about a citizen who was killed in Gaza.

Mark Smith, a civil servant in the Foreign Office who quit over weapons trade with Israel, said he was put under pressure to make events in Gaza “sound less bad” and reword his findings in an arms export licensing report he led.

Public and Commercial Services union general secretary Fran Heathcote told the tribunal she feared members in the Civil Service were being made to “break the law” and be complicit in genocide.

Ms Heathcote said the government told concerned employees they could either seek counselling or to resign from their position.

Israeli historian Raz Segal claimed the real death toll in Gaza could be double the official number.

He said: “We reach a horrific conclusion that Israel has killed directly about 120,000 Palestinians in Gaza so far and has created the conditions of a painful death of around 360,000 more — almost half a million people out of a population of nearly 2.3 million, more than 20 per cent.”