Activists protest escalating Mideast crisis outside UK base in Cyprus

Pro-Palestinian campaigners protested at the gates of RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus on Sunday, accusing Britain of offering tacit support to Israel's ongoing operations in Gaza and elsewhere.

Chanting "Out with the bases of death" a couple of hundred people holding Palestinian and Cypriot flags peacefully protested outside the locked gates of the facility, Britain's largest in the Middle East.

Britain last week sent additional troops to Cyprus to be in position to assist any potential evacuation of nationals trapped in Lebanon, which is reeling from a barrage of Israeli air strikes which culminated in the killing of Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah on Friday evening.

The UK has two military bases on Cyprus, a former British colony. RAF Akrotiri has been used in the past as a staging point for airstrikes against Houthi forces in Yemen in retaliation for attacks...