LIMASSOL, Cyprus: About 300 peace protesters rallied on Sunday outside Britain’s Akrotiri military base in Cyprus, charging it is fueling regional conflicts in Gaza and Yemen. The demonstrators demanded the closure of military bases that have been under British control since the eastern Mediterranean island nation’s independence in 1960. They carried a banner demanding a “Ceasefire Now” in the Zionist war on Gaza while another read “Stop funding genocide”.

Some online reports in Britain have pointed to UK and US military flights from Akrotiri to Tel Aviv and charged they were carrying military supplies for the Zionist entity.

“The demonstration against the British base at Akrotiri is being organized to condemn the transport of arms from the British bases to support the (Zionist) army’s military operations in the Gaza Strip,” Charis Pashias, head of the Cyprus Peace Council, told Al-Jazeera. Since the latest escalation of the Zionist-Palestinian conflict began on Oct 7, locals have seen a “daily” increase in the number of flights from Akrotiri, Pashias said. The base is about 40 minutes flying time from Tel Aviv. People have also “become aware of the illegal presence of thousands of American soldiers now stationed in Akrotiri,” he added.

Defence Minister Grant Shapps told parliament on Dec 5 that the UK would provide “only defensive materiel, or materiel that might help with the recovery of hostages” during the conflict. Haaretz has reported a spike in the delivery of equipment and arms to Akrotiri. Some 40 heavy-transport aircraft operated by the United States Air Force landed there in the first 24 days of the war from US and NATO depots in Europe, according to Haaretz. Another 20 heavy-lift planes from Britain’s Royal Air Force arrived at the base over the same period, the newspaper added.

Declassified UK, a news website focused on British foreign policy, revealed in November that RAF transport aircraft flew daily from Akrotiri to Tel Aviv between Oct 13 and 26. Over the two months prior to Oct 7, Declassified UK found no record of British military flights from Akrotiri to the Zionist entity.

A British defense ministry spokesperson told AFP that “British Forces Cyprus continue to support the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza and no RAF flights into (the Zionist entity) have transported any lethal cargo”. The spokesperson also said that a British naval vessel “with the support of British Forces Cyprus, delivered 87 tons of UK and Cypriot aid to Egypt for the people of Gaza”.

Commenting on an A400M military transport plane operated by the RAF landing at the Zionist entity’s Nevatim airbase on Dec 4, Meral Hussein-Ece, a British Liberal Democrat peer of Turkish-Cypriot background, suggested the jet was “unlikely to be delivering humanitarian aid”. “It’s long overdue these British bases in Cyprus were handed back to the Cypriots,” she posted on social media.

Meanwhile, there are also questions about the extent that the ethnic Greek Cypriot government, which controls the island’s southern territory, is kept informed of how Akrotiri and Dhekelia, the British base housing a US-UK electronic intelligence station, are being used in the Gaza war. Armed Forces Minister James Heappey last month said Britain informs the Republic of Cyprus about flights to and from Akrotiri “where appropriate ... although there is no formal requirement to do so”.

Asked about Britain and the US supplying the Zionist entity from Akrotiri in November, Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides said: “There is no such information, our country cannot be used as a base for war operations.” However, as the UK’s “sovereign base areas” are technically outside Cyprus, his reply could be seen as not referring to them. Kenny MacAskill, a British MP who has raised questions in parliament about Akrotiri’s alleged role in the Gaza war, said it was “disgraceful” that “both UK citizens and a sovereign state are denied information as to what is being done”. —AFP