Scale of exports
The U.K. has licensed arms worth more than £574 million to Israel since 2008, with U.K. defense exports amounting to £42 million in 2022, according to research by the House of Commons Library.
Britain has form in suspending arms sales to Israel. It did so in 1982 after Israel’s invasion of Lebanon and in 2002 it limited the sale of any military equipment which could be used in the Palestinian Territories.
But Foreign Office Minister Andrew Mitchell stressed last week that the U.K.’s exports “are very small, amounting to 0.02 percent of Israel’s military imports.” Two U.K. officials, granted anonymity to speak about internal government discussions, cautioned against reading too much into Britain’s hardened rhetoric over the past 24 hours, suggesting it was targeted at this specific attack and not Israel’s entire approach to the war.
Britain’s main opposition party, Labour, has also expressed caution about ending arms sales, although it has urged Israel to comply with international law.
Business spokesperson Darren Jones said Wednesday “the war would not end” if the U.K. stopped supplying arms, though understood why people would call for it “in the circumstances.”
Still, speaking at the NATO summit in Brussels Wednesday, Cameron said the U.K. would be “watching very closely” to see whether Israel allows more aid into Gaza and called for Israel’s investigation into the incident to happen “very quickly.”
The killing of the World Central Kitchen staff comes amid mounting scrutiny of the safety of aid workers in Gaza as Israel responds to Hamas’ deadly October 7 attack. The United Nations said Tuesday that almost 200 aid workers have been killed in the Israel-Hamas conflict so far.
Dan Bloom contributed reporting.