Unpacking Britain’s Complicity in Gaza’s Destruction

1,279 words, 7 minutes read time

Arming an Onslaught

As Israel’s military unleashed an onslaught on Gaza, levelling neighbourhoods and killing thousands of civilians, Britain was busy ramping up arms exports to Israel at breakneck speed. In late 2024, UK officials decried the “intolerable” human suffering in Gaza – even as they approved record weapons deals with the Israeli government. The contradiction is stark and shameful.

The humanitarian toll of Israel’s assault on Gaza since October 2023 is staggering. “It’s horrific. Gaza has become a slaughterhouse. That’s what it is: a slaughterhouse,” said Tom Potokar, a British doctor working in Khan Younis. Over 50,000 Palestinians have been killed – among them at least 15,000 children. Hundreds of thousands more have been injured or displaced. Homes, schools, hospitals – flattened. Civilians shot, starved, and bombed. Entire families buried alive. The Israeli military enforced a total blockade on food, water and medicine for months, a policy the UN condemned as using starvation as a weapon of war. International lawyers and even the International Court of Justice have warned of a plausible risk of genocide.

Yet, despite the scale of atrocities, the UK government not only failed to halt arms sales to Israel – it accelerated them.

Newly released export data show that between October and December 2024, Britain approved over £127 million worth of military export licences to Israel. That figure dwarfs the UK’s arms exports to Israel for the entire three previous years. Earlier in 2024, sales were negligible – less than £30,000 in the first quarter – but exploded in the final quarter as the bombs continued to fall on Gaza.

About half of these exports went to Israel’s military directly, the other half to its domestic defence industry. These included military radar systems, targeting software, components for F-35 stealth jets, and other equipment. The notion that these were “non-lethal” exports is not credible. A detailed examination of Israeli customs data shows over 8,600 items categorised under bombs, rockets, grenades, missiles and other munitions were sent from the UK. In one shipment alone, 160,000 items were delivered.

“Far from ‘helmets and goggles’, the government has been sending thousands of arms and ammunition while Israel wages genocide in Gaza.”
– Zarah Sultana MP

Soaring Exports Amid Suffering

The arms export spike to Israel in Q4 2024 – £127.6 million – exceeds even what the Conservatives approved over several years. These approvals came after the war had already killed thousands and drawn condemnation from the global community.

The UK is not a marginal supplier. British industry manufactures 15% of every F-35 jet used by Israel – from fuselage to weapons release mechanisms. These jets have been flying five times their usual sortie rate during the war in Gaza, dropping two-thousand-pound bombs on residential areas. UK components keep those planes in the air.

In October 2023, Britain sent 150,000 bullets to Israel. These were not defensive supplies. They were not “non-lethal.” They were part of an industrial-scale export operation fuelling an ongoing war that has wiped out entire neighbourhoods.

“This is a truly shocking increase in military exports to Israel… Our government is complicit in the death of every Palestinian child. Our government is complicit in genocide.”
– Emily Apple, Campaign Against Arms Trade

Stealth Fighters and Legal Loopholes

The UK’s so-called suspension of arms sales to Israel in September 2024 was full of holes. The most glaring: a carve-out for the F-35 stealth jet programme. Ministers claimed that halting components for the F-35 would undermine NATO security – a laughable excuse when those very jets are being used to pulverise Gaza.

Every F-35 part is traceable. There is no technical obstacle to excluding Israeli-bound deliveries. The UK government simply chose not to. It placed the “risk to the UK-US relationship” and its role in the jet programme above the lives of Palestinian civilians.

Government lawyers even argued in court that the UK had no obligation to stop arms sales unless there was definitive proof of genocide – a standard so high it renders the Genocide Convention meaningless. At the same time, the government admitted in internal documents that Israel was not complying with international humanitarian law and that UK weapons might be used in war crimes.

“Arguing that countries can wait until a genocide is proven before halting sales guts the Genocide Convention of any meaning.”
– Charlotte Andrews-Briscoe, Global Legal Action Network

Campaigners and Courts Fight Back

Civil society has not been silent. The Palestinian organisation Al-Haq, backed by the Global Legal Action Network and Amnesty International, launched a judicial review of the UK’s arms policy. Their legal case is clear: continuing to export arms to Israel amid mass killings and credible allegations of war crimes is unlawful.

They are not alone. Amnesty, Human Rights Watch, and even UN experts have demanded an immediate suspension of arms sales to Israel. Several European nations – including Spain, Italy, and the Netherlands – have already acted. Britain remains stubbornly out of step.

Inside the High Court, lawyer Raza Husain KC described the war in Gaza as a “human calamity.” Every hospital damaged. Ninety percent of residents displaced. Over 15,000 children dead. British medics on the ground have described treating children shot in the heart and head.

Outside the courtroom, campaigners continue to expose the arms trade’s dark reality. The Campaign Against Arms Trade said the UK is “profiteering from genocide.” They’re not wrong.

“This case has been ongoing for 17 months, in which time tens of thousands have been killed. The government doesn’t have to wait for the court’s decision to suspend all such arms sales. It could decide to act now, before more lives are lost.”
– Dr Halima Begum, Amnesty International UK

Britain’s Moral and Legal Obligations

The UK has legal duties under the Genocide Convention, international humanitarian law, and its own export control laws. These laws prohibit arms exports where there is a clear risk they could be used to commit war crimes.

That risk has long since passed the threshold. Every day the UK continues to supply Israel with weapons or components, it breaches those obligations.

Beyond law, there is morality. The British public does not want its taxes funding weapons that kill children. It does not want its economy built on the blood of civilians. We cannot claim to be a rules-based country while profiting from slaughter.

Spain, Italy and others have acted. The Dutch courts have halted F-35 deliveries. Britain? Still shipping bombs and pretending to be neutral. Still justifying the unjustifiable. Still choosing profit and political convenience over human life.

“These obligations are non-negotiable… Britain must stop further facilitating the perpetration of war crimes and crimes against humanity.”
– Shawan Jabarin, Director, Al-Haq

Time to End the Complicity

The evidence is overwhelming. British-made arms are fuelling Israel’s war on Gaza. They are not theoretical – they are physical, deadly, and in active use. The UK must act.

It must end all arms sales to Israel. It must revoke existing licences and stop F-35 components flowing. It must support international investigations and fully cooperate with efforts to hold those responsible for war crimes to account.

This is not just about Gaza. It is about who we are. A country that supplies bombs to an aggressor cannot claim to be a force for peace. It is time to end the hypocrisy.

Britain must stay out of foreign conflicts – and that begins by not arming one side in a war of annihilation. Anything less is complicity.

• By Pat Harrington

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Sources:

• Campaign Against Arms Trade
• Amnesty International
• Al-Haq
• Global Legal Action Network
• Hansard (UK Parliament)
• The Guardian
• Private Eye
• UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
• International Court of Justice
• Statements by MPs and medics reported in British and international media

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