British drone flew over Lebanon hours before and after Israeli massacre
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Imran Mulla
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Fri, 04/10/2026 - 10:55
The MQ-9B Protector circled near Baalbek before Israeli bombing killed at least 18 in the Bekaa Valley city
The RAF drone is seen on Flightradar24 circling over eastern Lebanon near the Syrian border on Wednesday morning, hours before Israeli strikes began (Screengrab)
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A British drone flew over Lebanon and circled near Baalbek on Wednesday, the day Israel hit Lebanon with a wave of strikes that killed more than 300 people - including 18 in the Beqaa Valley city.
A Middle East Eye analysis of flight-tracking data has found that a Royal Air Force MQ-9B Protector drone departed from the RAF Akrotiri base in Cyprus on Wednesday morning and began flying over Lebanon at around 6.20am.
The drone then flew in circles over an area near Baalbek and Younine in eastern Lebanon, close to the Syrian border, from around 6.30 to 6.50am.
It appeared to enter Syrian airspace at around 8am, flying north past Homs and passing over Idlib, flight-tracking data showed.
The drone's activities for several hours are unknown, but it was seen near Baalbek again at around 8.15pm, hours after heavy Israeli attacks hit Lebanon in the early afternoon.
The drone flew westwards over Baalbek and past Beirut, leaving Lebanon at around 8.30pm and heading back to RAF Akrotiri.
The remotely piloted aircraft, often used by the RAF, supports missions including "surveillance, search and rescue, and armed operations alongside Nato and US forces", according to the RAF.
The drone flew over Lebanon before and after the wave of Israeli strikes on Wednesday afternoon, which came after a two-week ceasefire between Iran and the US was agreed on Tuesday night.
The flight's purpose is unknown.
Middle East Eye has asked the UK's Ministry of Defence (MoD) whether the flight was coordinated with the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF), and whether any intelligence from the flight was shared with Israel or the United States.
UK has a 'bird's-eye view'
In Baalbek, 18 people were killed and 28 were wounded by Israeli strikes, according to the country's civil defence rescue organisation.
The Israeli military carried out intensive simultaneous strikes on central Beirut and its suburbs without warning, as well as in several areas in southern Lebanon and the Beqaa in the east.
The UK has a long history of supporting the Lebanese military with training, equipment and infrastructure, particularly on border security.
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Since 2009, Britain has trained tens of thousands of LAF personnel, mostly in the Land Border Regiments. The UK has also helped with constructing and upgrading border observation posts.
RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus, from which the drone was launched, is particularly controversial because it launched RAF planes to conduct hundreds of surveillance flights over Gaza throughout Israel's genocidal war on the Palestinian enclave.
The MoD has repeatedly insisted the surveillance flights were solely in support of "hostage rescue".
But they have been shrouded in secrecy, and it has emerged over the past two years that Britain has shared intelligence with Israel and has captured footage of Gaza on days that Israeli attacks have killed British citizens.
A source with knowledge of British surveillance capabilities in the Middle East told MEE last year that the surveillance flights over Gaza gave Britain "a bird's-eye view of the genocide".
The source noted that the UK, a partner in the Five Eyes intelligence alliance that also includes the US, Australia, Canada and New Zealand, is the "number one gatherer of intelligence" in the Middle East.
"Britain knows exactly what is happening because of those flights. They have a better view than any journalist."
UK-Israel military agreement
The UK signed a military agreement with Israel in 2020 that resolved to "formalise and enhance the defence partnership and support the growing Israel-UK partnership".
The accord itself has not been made public, but former Conservative defence minister James Heappey said in May 2021 that it "will streamline and provide a mechanism for planning our joint activity".
In 2024, Luke Pollard, a Labour minister of state in the defence ministry, said that "it is not possible to release this agreement as it is held at a higher classification", and the MoD said last October that the accord was still in place, according to Declassified UK.
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During the US-Israeli war on Iran, the UK repeatedly said it would not participate, but it allowed British military bases to be used by US bombers for the purpose of targeting Iranian missile sites.
On Thursday, British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said the UK believes Lebanon must be included within the framework of the Iran war ceasefire agreement.
This came amid conflicting accounts of the deal struck on Tuesday night.
Pakistan, which mediated the deal, said the two-week pause in fighting would extend to Lebanon. But Israel denied this, as its strikes continued.
After the Wednesday massacre, international pressure and Iranian threats, Israel said it would reduce its attacks and meet with the Lebanese government in Washington next week for direct talks.
Israeli air strikes have killed around 1,900 people in Lebanon and displaced more than one million since the US-Israeli war on Iran began on 28 February, according to Lebanese authorities.
The war spread to Lebanon in early March, when Hezbollah fired a volley of rockets across the Israeli border in response to the killing of Iran's supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, who was an important spiritual leader for the Lebanese group.
Hezbollah also argued that it was preempting an Israeli attack on Lebanon, an analysis supported by reports in the Israeli media.
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