DESPITE public commitments to halt arms shipments that could be used in Gaza, the Labour government has authorised the export of over 8,600 munitions to Israel since coming to power, according to a damning new report.
The report, compiled by the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM), Progressive International, and Workers for a Free Palestine, is based on Israeli Tax Authority data and was shared exclusively with US-based Drop Site News.
Between September 2024 and February 2025, four separate UK arms shipments arrived at Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv.
These consignments were registered by Israeli authorities under classifications such as ‘Bombs, Grenades, Torpedoes, Mines, Missiles And Similar Munitions Of War And Parts Thereof’.
A shipment in September 2024 alone contained 528 of these items.
That figure rose dramatically in November, with 4,500 munitions arriving from the UK. In January and February 2025, a further 3,602 weapons were delivered.
Israeli customs documents detail the cargo using monthly breakdowns and corresponding customs codes, identifying the specific nature of the imports.
Yet the UK’s Department for Business and Trade, which regulates arms exports, has refused to clarify what was contained in these deliveries.
A government spokesperson instead claimed: ‘In September, we suspended export licences to Israel for items used in military operations in Gaza.
‘Our remaining licences relate to non-military items, military items for civilian use or not for use in military operations in Gaza, or components for items for re-export to other countries.’
However, the Israeli classification of these shipments unequivocally indicates that Britain has supplied munitions that are actively used in war.
The shipments follow a string of others dating back to the early days of Israel’s latest assault on Gaza in October 2023, during which more than 34,000 Palestinians have been killed, the majority of them women and children.
These actions have widely been condemned by human rights experts as war crimes, with growing recognition that they constitute genocide.
Following its election, the Labour government claimed to depart from the previous Conservative administration’s approach by announcing in September 2024 that it would suspend arms licences to Israel if the items were likely to be used in Gaza.
That decision led to the immediate suspension of 29 licences — out of around 350 — for military goods deemed to pose a ‘clear risk’ of violating international humanitarian law.
The list reportedly included components for fighter jets, helicopters, drones, and ground targeting systems.
Yet, despite these assurances, the government has not published the suspended licence details, leading to public scepticism over whether such exports have truly ceased.
Jeanine Hourani, a representative of the PYM, in an interview with US-based Drop Site news said: ‘These findings confirm what we already knew: Britain is complicit in the genocide of our people.
‘But, while the government enables the flow of weapons for war and ethnic cleansing, the British people stand with Gaza.’
She added: ‘We will continue to build with left forces, trade unionists, and people of conscience to enact a people’s arms embargo and end Britain’s collaboration in the genocide.’
Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, now an independent MP, has repeatedly demanded transparency.
‘When will the UK government come clean about the reality of military cooperation with Israel?’ he asked.
‘The public deserves to know the full scale of the UK’s complicity in crimes against humanity, and we are not going anywhere until we have established the truth.’
In December 2023 and again in April 2024, Britain sent shipments classified under the category of ‘rocket launchers; flame-throwers; grenade launchers; torpedo tubes and similar projectors’.
In total, the UK exported 150 such items during this period.
In addition, 299 items associated with tanks and armoured fighting vehicles were sent in six shipments between 2024 and January 2025.
Mark Smith, a Foreign Office official, resigned in August 2024 in protest at UK arms exports to Israel. He described witnessing ‘not just moral failure, but conduct that I believe crossed the threshold into complicity with war crimes’.
Perhaps most contentious is Britain’s ongoing involvement in the F-35 fighter jet programme.
While the government officially excluded F-35 components from the September 2024 suspension, citing NATO obligations, these fighter jets have been used extensively in Israeli bombing campaigns in both Gaza and Lebanon.
Labour defence minister Maria Eagle confirmed that from October 2023 to August 2024, fourteen F-35 component shipments were sent from RAF Marham in Norfolk directly to Israel.
This aligns with Israeli import data, which recorded these as shipments under ‘Customs Code 88’ — used for aircraft and related parts.
Although Eagle claimed no further parts had been sent since the policy change, Israeli customs data reveals otherwise.
From October 2024 to March 2025, another thirteen courier shipments of aircraft parts from the UK to Israel were documented.
Eleven of these were categorised as ‘parts of airplanes, helicopters, or unmanned aircraft’, with additional shipments containing parachutes and rotor components.
Asked whether these parts were for the F-35 programme, the Department for Business and Trade would not comment.
A spokesperson stated only: ‘Exports to the global F-35 programme have been excluded from that decision… because it is not currently possible to suspend licensing of F-35 components for use by Israel without prejudicing the entire programme, including its broader strategic role in NATO.’
This so-called ‘re-export’ loophole permits the UK to continue supplying F-35 components to Israel, provided the items are not directly labelled for Israeli use, effectively allowing Israel to acquire new jets built using British-made parts.
Graham Maher of Workers for a Free Palestine condemned this policy, saying: ‘Over the past few weeks, we have seen workers in France and Morocco take action to halt the transfer of F-35 parts to Israel on Maersk ships.
‘Their brave actions serve as a reminder of the power we have as workers to intervene in the supply chain of genocide. The ongoing British complicity outlined in these findings comes with an urgent duty to take action and enforce an arms embargo on Israel from below.’
Sam Perlo-Freeman, research coordinator at the Campaign Against the Arms Trade (CAAT), has also raised alarm: ‘The government needs to urgently explain how Israel imported munitions from the UK after the suspension of licences for equipment for use in Gaza.
‘What are these weapons, and how is their export consistent with the government’s stated policy? Were they exported from the UK itself, or from the UK’s military base on Cyprus?
‘Are they supplied by UK companies, or is the government using the Akrotiri base to help the US supply munitions to Israel?’
RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus, just a short flight from Tel Aviv, has become a hub for covert military support to Israel.
According to Drop Site, the base has facilitated near-daily UK military surveillance flights over Gaza since December 2023, and has been used to channel weapon shipments from European depots to Israel.
C-17 and A400 aircraft have made regular trips, often coinciding with customs-logged deliveries of UK munitions into Israel.
‘This new information shows how the Minister of Defence is able to operate completely outside any scrutiny or accountability,’ Perlo-Freeman said.
‘Either way, this import data provides further evidence of UK government responsibility for war crimes.
‘The government must clearly address these questions and not hide behind vague denials and the secrecy afforded by overseas military bases.’