Is Britain selling weapons to Israel?

UK Foreign Secretary David Lemi has condemned Israel’s conduct in Gaza and said that Britain “may do more in the coming weeks” if the Israeli government does not change how it is chasing war in the strip.

He expressed anger that “the international community is not able to end this war” and said that he was “sick” from the killings of Palestinians in the aid centers by Israeli forces in recent times.

Since Israel launched its military operation in Gaza after the October 7 attacks, important people have focused on the issue of assistance provided by the UK. Most of the weapons (IDF) strips used in Israel defense forces have been created or sold by Western countries.

But the information around the UK military support for Israel is often unclear or classified, and some MPs have called for a public inquiry about the aid limit.

The UK is not one of the main suppliers of Israel’s weapons. America is the largest seller ever – helping Israel develop one of the world’s most advanced terrorists – followed by Germany and Italy.

Since 2015, the UK has approved a weapon export license to Israel worth more than £ 500m ($ 676.4) – at peak in 2018 Campaign against arms trade group,

However, most of the attention to the support of the UK for Israel has focused on the parts made in the UK for F -35 jet. A state-of-the-art multi-rol fighter, it has been used by Israel to attack Gaza on a large scale.

The UK supplies between 13–15% of the components used in the jet, which targets seats, rear fusel, active interceptor systems, lasers and arms release cables.

After the Labor Party came to power last year, it suspended 30 of 350 arms export licenses, affecting equipment such as fighter jets, helicopters and parts for drones.

Any UK company that wants to sell weapons abroad would have to apply for a license, and the government said at the time that there was a “clear risk”, the equipment can be used for serious violations of international law.

But significantly, parts for F -35 were not included in the export ban. The government said that it cannot prevent Israel from achieving these components as they are sent to manufacturing centers abroad as part of the global program – not directly to Israel.

Professor Anna Stavriankis, an expert on the UK weapons exports, described the government’s decision to allow the decision to allow the decision to allow this exemption as “a huge flaws”.

“UK -made parts for F -35 mostly go to USA, where they are included in the bound jets for Israel,” he verified the BBC, saying that the White House “does not want to stop supporting Israel”, UK export ban was quite limited in their effectiveness.

The UK co-developed the Hermes drone, which is widely used in Gaza. While the UK version of the aircraft, called the watchkeeper 450, is unarmed, Israeli -made Hermes drone can be equipped with spike missiles and was reportedly used in an attack that killed seven world central kitchen ad workers last year.

It is difficult to say what UK is still exporting to Israel under active license. Foreign Secretary David Lammi said last year that the ban was not “blanket restriction or arms embarrago” and said it is necessary that it was necessary to defend itself from the Israeli attack.

According to the Department of Trade and Trade, The current license belongs to 161 military products.

A UK Parliament report states that the remaining licenses may include “trainers aircraft and naval equipment such as items and dual -use items for civil use in telecommunications and data devices”.

The UK has shared intelligence with Israel since the October 7 attacks. The government has long been “defense partnership with Israel”, including defense officials say “education, joint training and capacity development”.

The Royal Air Force (RAF) has blew up hundreds of monitoring flights on Gaza since December 2023, Allegedly using shadow R1 detective aircraft An RAF in Akarotiri in nearby Cyprus is based on the base.

In an interview on Monday, Lamy insisted that RAF flights over Gaza have not shared any military intelligence with IDF.

The Foreign Secretary said, “It would be quite wrong for the British government to assist in the prosecution of this war in Gaza.” “We are not doing this.”

In 2023, the UK admitted that some of its “unarmed” drones circling in search of Israeli hostages taken by Hamas during the 7 October attacks. Hamas still has 50 people, of which 20 are considered alive.

Armed Forces minister Luke Pollard confirmed the stance in April 2025, told the MPs that the UK drone flights on Gaza were being held with “the sole purpose of detection of hostages”.

The Ministry of Defense (MOD) has refused to comment on whether the Israeli aircraft has access to the base of RAF in Cyprus. But BBC Verifi identified Israeli Air Force aircraft in the UK airs in the last one year following a report in independent outlet drops. Many re’em fuel -filled aircraft appeared on special flight tracking sites at RAF locations in Brize Norton and Fairford.

A MOD spokesperson verified the BBC, “This is the standard exercise to regularize requests for a limited number of colleagues and partners to reach the UK air locations.”

“We cannot comment on information related to military aircraft movements or operations of foreign nations,” the spokesperson said.

The UK often runs training courses for military countries of friendly countries, many of which focus on leadership, logistics and cyber-operating. For example, thousands of Ukrainian soldiers have come to Britain as Russia began his full -scale invasion for basic training in 2022.

Lord Cocker – Minister of State in the UK Mod said in April that “IDF” IDF personnel have been trained on non -Ladaku military educational courses in the UK every year since 2020.

He refused to say how many IDF soldiers had participated in the courses at that time, or which sections they took “to protect personal information”. But the ministers have insisted that the curriculum emphasizes the importance of compliance with the international human law.

Armed Forces Minister Luke Pollard confirmed in June that “a limited number of Israel defense force personnel” were participating in the UK -based training courses, but refused to offer further details.

Britain’s approach to justifying Israel for his campaign in Gaza after the general election in 2024. The new labor government abandoned the government’s protest to arrest the warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yov Gallant.

Since then, it has become more vocal in its criticism by Israeli leaders, and joined 27 other countries this week to condemn the “inhuman killing of citizens” in search of food and water in Gaza.

And the Labor Government suspended dialogue with Israel in May to upgrade its free trade agreement, in which Lemy called the Israeli treatment of Palestinians “a protest for the values of British people”.

But when the government has approved two far-flung Israeli ministers to “incite violence” in the West Bank occupied, it has so far imposed any restriction on Israel for its works in Gaza, who has killed at least 59,029 people according to the Hamas-Run Health Ministry.