Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what is the cost of using RAF (a) personnel and (b) equipment to prepare Straight Flight Nevada Commercial Leasing LLC for surveillance flights over Gaza, for each month from October 2023.

The Ministry of Defence has been conducting unarmed surveillance flights over Gaza for the sole purpose of locating hostages.

While I am unable to disclose these costs for reasons of operational security and as a matter of policy, Defence operational spend in relation to the Israel-Gaza conflict for 2023/24 has been published in its Annual Reports and Accounts for that financial year online. The Department's accounts for 2024-25 will be published in due course.