Britain's air bases, Gaza and the Brize Norton case
Base profile
The UK's largest RAF station and home of the Voyager tanker fleet; the site of the June 2025 protest at the centre of the Brize Norton 6 case.
RAF Brize Norton is the UK's largest RAF station and the home of the RAF's Air Mobility Force, the part of the RAF that moves people and equipment by air. Its tankers refuel fighter jets on operations and for the defence of the UK.
The base operates the core fleet of nine Voyagers, a converted Airbus A330 airliner that can carry troops and cargo and refuel other aircraft in mid-air. The RAF does not own them. They are provided by AirTanker, a private company, under a private finance initiative (PFI) that runs to 2035 and requires all UK military air-to-air refuelling to go through AirTanker. AirTanker's building at Brize Norton houses the two RAF Voyager squadrons above company staff and RAF engineers. Read about the AirTanker deal.
Planes from Brize Norton fly to RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus almost every day. Flight tracking records 421 Voyager flights between the two bases between 7 October 2023 and June 2025. Akrotiri is the base from which RAF surveillance planes flew hundreds of missions over Gaza. The chain of support.
The government admitted in February 2024 that nine Israeli Air Force planes had used British territory since 7 October 2023, including one that flew from Nevatim air base in Israel to Brize Norton on Christmas Day 2023. At least nine more landed at Brize Norton between September 2024 and June 2025, including refuelling aircraft, the last eleven days before the protest. The Ministry of Defence will "neither confirm, deny, nor comment". What we know.
On 20 June 2025, two people entered the base and damaged two Voyagers, ZZ338 and ZZ343. Six people face trial from 25 January 2027 at Woolwich Crown Court. What happened.
AirTanker & PFI
The RAF's tankers belong to AirTanker under a £10.5bn private finance deal, and its basic fast-jet trainers to a joint venture of KBR and Elbit Systems.
The case
Two people entered RAF Brize Norton in the early hours of 20 June 2025 and damaged two Voyager tanker planes. Six people face trial at Woolwich Crown Court from 25 January 2027.
UK–Israel military links
A dated timeline of the RAF Voyager tankers, surveillance flights and Israeli military flights at Brize Norton and Akrotiri in the weeks before the 20 June 2025 protest.
UK–Israel military links
Flight records show ZZ338 and ZZ343 were flying from RAF Akrotiri in the weeks before the June 2025 protest. The MoD has not explained the records for ZZ343.
UK–Israel military links
Flight records place both Voyagers damaged in June 2025 at Akrotiri during UK strikes on Yemen in 2024. Declassified UK and the government give different reasons for the strikes.
AirTanker & PFI
AirTanker's chief executive says both damaged Voyagers were recovered in under 21 days. Flight data shows one of them flying again 22 days after the protest, with the core fleet already stretched.
AirTanker & PFI
As far as the research shows, RAF Voyagers cannot refuel with a boom, and AirTanker, not the MoD, owns them. A King's College London report says the RAF depends on the US Air Force for wider capacity.
UK–Israel military links
Parts repaired at MOD Sealand go into a shared pool that supplies Israel's F-35s, and F-35 parts were exempt from a 2024 licence suspension. RAF trainers are owned by a venture that includes Elbit.
Political links
Robert Courts, MP for the seat that includes RAF Brize Norton and later Solicitor General, took a 2020 trip to Israel paid for by Conservative Friends of Israel. It was declared and broke no rules.
Political links
Richard Hermer became Attorney General in July 2024, and the Brize Norton charges needed personal consent from a law officer. His public statements and official actions on Israel are collected here.
Explainers
The Voyager is a converted Airbus A330 that carries troops and cargo and refuels other jets in mid-air. Two Voyagers were damaged at RAF Brize Norton in June 2025.
Proscription
The Home Secretary announced the ban days after the protest at RAF Brize Norton, citing the attack. The High Court ruled it unlawful, but the Court of Appeal reinstated it in June 2026.
The law
Section 4 of the National Security Act 2023 covers entering a prohibited place for a purpose prejudicial to UK interests. It needs no foreign power, and the maximum sentence is 14 years.
Political links
A dated record of what ministers and a parliamentary committee have said about RAF flights to Israel, Israeli planes at Brize Norton and the Gaza surveillance flights, from 1998 to 2025.
UK–Israel military links
The government admitted nine Israeli Air Force visits to Brize Norton in February 2024. Records show at least nine more between September 2024 and June 2025.
Comparisons
Seven official statements on the Brize Norton protest and the RAF's Voyager tankers, checked against flight records, Freedom of Information requests and parliamentary records.
Comparisons
The Filton trials were the first in the UK to apply a 'terrorist connection' finding to criminal damage. This comparison sets them against the Brize Norton case due in January 2027.
Comparisons
A comparison of three protests at British defence sites, with a 1964 case as background, setting out the charges, the damage claimed, the legal rulings and the outcome so far.
Explainers
Palestine Action claimed RAF Voyagers refuel Israeli jets. The refuelling equipment does not match, and the better-documented links to Israel's campaign lie elsewhere.
The case
The six accused are due to stand trial at Woolwich Crown Court on 25 January 2027 over the protest at RAF Brize Norton. The first five pleaded not guilty and Lara Downes denies the charges.
Prisoners
The six people accused over the RAF Brize Norton protest are held on remand. Four joined a hunger strike from November 2025, and the Ministry of Justice disputes their claims about medical care.
The case
Twelve documented facts about the Brize Norton protest and the case against six accused, with sources, covering the planes, the damage figures, the National Security Act and the Palestine Action ban.
AirTanker & PFI
Prosecutors and police have cited three different costs for damage to two RAF Voyager tankers. Declassified UK's Freedom of Information requests found the MoD cannot substantiate any of them.
Timeline
A dated timeline of the RAF Brize Norton case, from the start of Israel's campaign in Gaza in October 2023 to the trial due in January 2027, covering the protest, charges and court rulings.
Explainers
Plain definitions of the legal, military, corporate and Gaza-related terms in the Brize Norton case, from conspiracy and prohibited place to Voyager, PFI and the ICJ.
UK–Israel military links
Flight records, parliamentary answers and published reporting link RAF Brize Norton to Israel's military campaign through Akrotiri, RAF spy flights over Gaza and Israeli planes on the base.
The case
Six people are charged over the 20 June 2025 protest at RAF Brize Norton. They are aged 22 to 44, and all six are held on pre-trial remand.
The case
Four people were charged in early July 2025. A fifth was arrested in August, and Lara Downes was charged in 2026 as the sixth, which is why the case is now called the Brize Norton 6.
AirTanker & PFI
The RAF's Voyager tankers belong to AirTanker, a private company, under a 2008 private finance initiative deal. A parliamentary committee later said it had not secured value for money.
