Concerns were raised on Friday regarding “unusual movements” undertaken by an American military transport aircraft in and around Cypriot airspace.

The aircraft, a Boeing C-17 which belongs to the United States’ Air Force, was recorded as having taken off from Paphos airport shortly before on Tuesday and landing at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion airport a little over three quarters of an hour later.

However, a group of non-governmental organisations based in Cyprus, including activist group Afoa and pro-Palestine groups BDS Cyprus, Genocide-Free Cyprus, and United for Palestine Cyprus, have alleged that the island has been used “as a stopover point to transport unknown cargo and personnel” from the US’ Al Udeid airbase in Qatar to Israel.

The aircraft has in recent days been recorded taking off and landing at Al Udeid, while on a number of occasions, its transponder has been turned off, leaving the public unable to discern its location.

The group of organisations alleged that on one such occasion, it was “unclear whether the plane actually landed in Paphos or diverted to the nearby Mari naval base”, though the latter is extremely unlikely as there is no runway at Mari and the C-17 is not capable of performing a sea landing.

According to the group, the aircraft reappeared on the radar an hour later, en route to Israel.

It then said that after departing from Israel, the flight data “suggested that the aircraft conducted a phantom landing” in Cyprus, wherein an aircraft passes close to an airport at low altitude, “creating the appearance of a landing to disguise the fact that there was a direct route between the US base and Israel”.

“Moreover, the altitude readings of the C-17 never dropped to zero, indicating that it did not land in Paphos at all but merely passed over the region in an apparent attempt to trick flight-tracking systems,” it added.

It then said that the flights were “almost certainly not related to humanitarian aid”, as “there would be no reason for a US military cargo aircraft to undertake such a secretive journey if its purpose were humanitarian”.

“Instead, the cloak of secrecy surrounding the C-17’s movements makes it all the more evident that military aid was being transported through Cypriot facilities,” it said, adding that the Cypriot government had as such “become directly complicit in enabling these transfers”.

It then added that “by permitting such flights and enabling operations from the island to aid the US and Israel, the Cypriot government has effectively abdicated its sovereignty, turning the island into a silent accomplice in genocide”.