Sherin Wafi (centre) and her daughter Mira (4) mourn during the funeral of her husband Hosam Wafi, who was killed by an Israeli strike in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, June 2, 2025
Starmer should not need to wait for the High Court’s decision on F-35 parts in order to do the right thing, warns CLAUDIA WEBBE
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According to the government’s “Strategic export controls: quarterly licensing statistics,” the UK sent more arms to Israel in the final three months of 2024, after the 8 per cent “ban,” than in all the preceding four years from 2020-23 combined. This escalation included the secret use of British military aircraft on at least seven occasions to deliver F-35 parts directly to Israel.
The government’s argument in court for the continued supply of F-35 parts to Israel has scraped through the bottom of even the toughest barrel. Its lawyers have argued that the “security” need to keep parts available around the world overrides Britain’s obligations, which are unequivocal under international law, to intervene to prevent genocide and war crimes and both that “no evidence has been seen that Israel is deliberately targeting civilian women or children” and that “there is also evidence of Israel making efforts to limit incidental harm to civilians,” despite Israel’s known heavy use of the heaviest US-made “dumb bombs” on densely populated civilian areas and the tent camps of refuges in supposed safe zones.
The government’s claim also flouts the clear evidence, provided by the United Nations as well as by every international, including Israeli human rights and humanitarian group, that Israel’s blockade is inflicting starvation on Gaza, putting huge numbers of civilians and especially children, at “imminent” risk of starving to death. According to Unicef in mid-May, “71,000 children and more than 17,000 mothers … need urgent treatment for acute malnutrition.”
In reality, the British government could inflict rapid degradation on the ability of Israel to kill Palestinian civilians in Gaza just by imposing a ban on parts for a single aircraft type, that would also send a clear message to other governments still prevaricating over their obligations to take every available action to end Israel’s genocide in Gaza. The effects of this action, both militarily and politically, would be massively amplified if Britain did its legal duty and imposed the complete arms embargo demanded by human rights groups and campaigners.
All of this is possible right now. The Starmer government should not need a court order before it does the self-evidently right thing, and it must not drag its feet while the court process grinds on and more civilians in Gaza are killed. Every socialist, every decent human being, must demand nothing less on the streets and directly to the British Parliament and of their MP.
Genocide denier and Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that UK air force support has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide. Includes URLs https://www.declassifieduk.org/keir-starmers-100-spy-flights-over-gaza-in-support-of-israel/ and https://youtu.be/O74hZCKKdpAUK Labour Party government ministers Keir Starmer, Angela Rayner and Rachel Reeves explain that they are partners complicit in Israel’s Gaza genocide. The UK has provided Israel with arms, military and air force support. They explain that they don’t do gas chambers but do do forced marches, starvation, destroy hospitals, mass-murders of journalists and healthcare workers.UK Foreign Minister David Lammy confirms that UK government and military are active participants in Israel’s genocides and that the F-35 parts that they suspended from supplying to Israel are instead simply diverted via the United States. He says see https://youtu.be/QILgUHrdWRE
Foreign Secretary David Lammy announcing the partial suspension of arms exports to Israel in September 2024 (Parliamentary Recording Unit/AFP)
UK greenlit $169m in military goods to Israel in three months after a partial arms embargo
The UK government approved $169m worth of military equipment to Israel in the three months that followed the Labour government’s partial suspension of arms exports over concerns they could be used unlawfully in Gaza.
Export data released on Thursday shows that 20 different licences in categories such as military aircraft, radars, targeting equipment, and explosive devices, were approved between October and December 2024.
Arms campaigners say the three-month total is more than what was approved altogether under the Tory government between 2020 and 2023, and said the increase was “truly shocking”.
“This is the Labour government aiding and abetting Israel’s genocide in Gaza,” said Emily Apple, media coordinator for the UK-based Campaign Against Arms Trade.
“It is sickening that instead of imposing a full two-way arms embargo, Keir Starmer’s government has massively increased the amount of military equipment the UK is sending to Israel.”
Genocide denying UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy says that UK is suspending 30 of 350 arms licences to Israel. He also confirms the UK government’s support for Israel’s Gaza genocide and the UK government and military’s active participation in genocide.
The UK Labour government hugely increased arms exports to Israel while giving the impression of restricting them. The UK government made the announcement of suspending 30 licences on 2nd September 2024.
An Israeli F-35 fighter jet taking off. The suspension covers components for certain military aircraft. Photograph: Abir Sultan/EPA
Foreign Office says review found ‘clear risk’ UK arms may be used in violation of humanitarian law
The UK has broken with the Biden administration on a significant part of their tightly coordinated policy towards Israel by announcing it is suspending some arms export licences to Israel because of a “clear risk” they may be used to commit or facilitate a serious violation of international humanitarian law.
The Foreign Office said a two-month internal review had raised concerns about the way Israel had conducted itself in the conflict in Gaza and that the decision specifically related to concerns around the treatment of Palestinian detainees and the supply of aid to Gaza.
No definitive conclusion has been reached about whether UK arms export licences have contributed to the destruction in the territory. But the scale of the devastation and the number of civilian deaths caused great concern, the Foreign Office said.
The suspension, which is likely to cause tensions with the US government, covers components for military aircraft, helicopters, drones and targeting equipment.
Mr Lammy also said the decision would not affect the F-35 programme that supplies aircraft to more than 20 countries (except where components go directly to Israel, which are included in the action). Mr Lammy said the global F-35 supply chain is “vital for the security of the UK, our allies and NATO”.
UK Foreign Minister David Lammy confirms that UK government and military are active participants in Israel’s genocides and that the F-35 parts that they suspended from supplying to Israel are instead simply diverted via the United States. He says see https://youtu.be/QILgUHrdWREUK Labour Party government ministers Keir Starmer, Angela Rayner and Rachel Reeves explain that they are partners complicit in Israel’s Gaza genocide. The UK has provided Israel with arms, military and air force support. They explain that they don’t do gas chambers but do do forced marches, starvation, destroy hospitals, mass-murders of journalists and healthcare workers.
Steve Witherden, MP for Montgomeryshire and Glyndŵr, held a Parliamentary debate on British arms sales to Israel (Image: Parliament TV)
A WELSH Labour MP has called on the UK Government to suspend all arms sales to Israel to ensure that the UK is not “complicit in the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in Gaza”.
Steve Witherden, MP for Montgomeryshire and Glyndŵr, held a Parliamentary debate on British arms sales to Israel on Monday evening, calling on the UK Government to suspend all arms exports.
During the debate, Witherden described Gaza as a “slaughterhouse” and said that the UK Government is still letting the “weapons flow” into Israel despite the country’s genocidal acts on Gaza.
Witherden also highlighted the lack of transparency surrounding the true extent of UK military exports to Israel, particularly regarding the supply of components for the F-35 fighter jet programme, and urged ministers to outline the specific conditions that would trigger a halt to further exports.
“The Government have claimed that there are red lines that would trigger a halt to exports, but Gaza is already a slaughterhouse,” Witherden said.
“Children are emaciated or dying of hunger, hospitals have been intentionally destroyed and Israel’s leaders vow to wipe out Gaza, and still the weapons flow, so finally, Minister, where is our red line?”
The Labour MP added: “I call on this Government to suspend all arms exports to Israel, to ensure that no British-made weapons are used in Israel’s brutal plans to annex, starve and ethnically cleanse the Palestinian population.
Genocide denier and Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that UK air force support has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide. Includes URLs https://www.declassifieduk.org/keir-starmers-100-spy-flights-over-gaza-in-support-of-israel/ and https://youtu.be/O74hZCKKdpAUK Labour Party government ministers Keir Starmer, Angela Rayner and Rachel Reeves explain that they are partners complicit in Israel’s Gaza genocide. The UK has provided Israel with arms, military and air force support. They explain that they don’t do gas chambers but do do forced marches, starvation, destroy hospitals, mass-murders of journalists and healthcare workers.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer (centre), Defence Secretary John Healey (second right) and Managing Director of BAE Systems’ naval ships business Simon Lister (right) speak to a member of staff during a visit to BAE Systems in Govan, Glasgow, to launch the Strategic Defence Review.
LAUNCHING his government’s Strategic Defence Review (SDR) in Glasgow yesterday, Keir Starmer set out his mission to “Make Britain safer and stronger. A battle-ready, armour-clad nation with the strongest alliances and the most advanced capabilities equipped for the decades to come.”
It might have sounded more convincing had he delivered it from inside a suit of armour, perhaps in the manner of a Monty Python sketch. The sub-Churchillian rhetoric was, as usual, embarrassing. The self-delusion was boundless. And the underlying intent is as criminal as it is suicidal.
One would think that Britain is some poor defenceless lamb besieged by ravenous wolves, not the world’s fifth-biggest nuclear weapons power, the sixth-biggest military spender and the seventh-biggest arms exporter (notably to Middle East dictatorships and genocidal Israel).
But for armour-clad Sir Keir, this is not enough. More nuclear warheads, each with three times the killing power of Hiroshima. Thousands more missiles to deliver them across vast tracts of the globe. More nuclear and conventional submarines.
And six new munitions factories, boosting our military-industrial complex already swollen with many billions of pounds that would otherwise be wasted on homes, schools, clinics, hospitals, civil defences, green energy plants and low-carbon transport systems.
Swedish climate campaigner Greta Thunberg speaks surrounded by other participants in the latest Freedom Flotilla Coalition effort to deliver shipborne aid to Gaza, during a June 1, 2025 press conference in Catania, Italy. (Photo: Fabrizio Villa/Getty Images)
“No matter how dangerous this mission is, it’s nowhere near as dangerous as the silence of the entire world in the face of the live-streamed genocide,” said climate activist Greta Thunberg, who is aboard the Madleen.
A dozen Palestine defenders including climate campaigner Greta Thunberg and a French lawmaker set sail from Sicily on Sunday aboard a boat carrying humanitarian aid for the people of Gaza, many of whom are starving amid Israel’s ongoing U.S.-backed genocidal assault and siege and decadeslong naval blockade of the coastal enclave.
The Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC) said it launched the sailboat Madleen—named after Gaza’s first and only known fisherwoman—from Catania, Italy at 4:00 pm local time Sunday “in direct defiance of Israel’s illegal and genocidal blockade.”
“Madleen symbolizes the unyielding spirit of Palestinian resilience and the growing global resistance to Israel’s use of collective punishment and deliberate starvation policies,” FFC said in a statement Sunday. “The ship is carrying urgently needed supplies for the people of Gaza, including baby formula, flour, rice, diapers, women’s sanitary products, water desalination kits, medical supplies, crutches, and children’s prosthetics.”
The international volunteers aboard Madleen include Thunberg, French Member of European Parliament Rima Hassan, German refugee advocate and FFC steering committee member Yasemin Acar, Brazilian FFC steering committee member Thiago Ávila, Al Jazeera reporter Omar Fayad, French doctor Baptiste Andre, French journalist Yanis M’Hamdi, Turkish engineer Şuayb Ordu, and crew members Mark Van Rennes, Reva Seifert Viard, Pascal Maurieras, and Sergio Toribio.
“I am aboard Madleen because silence is not neutrality—it is complicity,” said Hassan, who is banned from entering Israel due to her outspoken support for Palestinian rights. “The Palestinian people in Gaza are being starved and slaughtered, and the world watches. This ship is not just carrying aid, it is carrying a demand: End the blockade. End the genocide.”
Thunberg said that “we are seeing a systematic starvation of 2 million people. The world cannot be silent bystanders, Every single one of us has a moral obligation to do everything we can to fight for a free Palestine.”
The Madleen‘s launch came a month after the Conscience, another FCC aid vessel traveling in international waters off Malta, was attacked twice, presumably by Israeli forces. No one was harmed in what FFC said was a drone strike on the ship. However, the activists were forced to abort their humanitarian mission. Israel has not commented on the incident.
Madleen also set sail nearly 15 years to the day after Israeli forces raided a Gaza Freedom Flotilla convoy carrying humanitarian aid to the besieged people of Gaza. The attack—which also came in international waters—left nine people including Turkish-American teenager Furkan Doğan dead.
FFC said Sunday that the “unarmed and nonviolent” mission “poses no threat” and “sails in full accordance with international law. Any attack or interference will be a deliberate, unlawful assault on civilians.”
Those aboard the Madleen said they were aware of the dangers they faced. Israel has killed numerous Western activists and journalists who document its human rights violations over the years, and just last month Israeli troops opened fire on a group of international diplomats visiting the illegally occupied West Bank two days after three involved countries issued an ultimatum to stop annihilating Gaza.
“We are doing this because, no matter what odds we are against, we have to keep trying,” a tearful Thunberg said during a Sunday press conference. “Because the moment we stop trying is when we lose our humanity.”
“And no matter how dangerous this mission is, it’s nowhere near as dangerous as the silence of the entire world in the face of the live-streamed genocide,” she added.
Activist Greta Thunberg says silence is more dangerous than sailing to Gaza, as she boarded a vessel that will try to break the Israeli blockade of Gaza.
The Gaza Freedom Flotilla had to abandon its last attempt on May 2 when it was bombed. pic.twitter.com/ieecZ8ps0E
Some Israelis and their supporters took to social media to wish harm upon the activists. In the United States, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) alluded to past Israeli attacks on Gaza aid flotillas in a social media post saying, “Hope Greta and her friends can swim!”
Israel strongly refutes allegations that it is committing genocide in Gaza. South Africa has filed, and dozens of nations support, a genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice in The Hague.
The International Criminal Court, also located in the Dutch city, has issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant, his former defense minister, for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity, including extermination and starvation as a weapon of war, in Gaza.
Officials in Gaza say that more than 192,000 Palestinians have been killed or injured since Israel launched its assault and siege following the Hamas-led attack of October 7, 2023, a figure that includes at least 14,000 people who are missing and presumed dead and buried beneath rubble and hundreds of mostly children who have died from acute malnutrition and lack of medical care.
Around 2 million Gazans have also been forcibly displaced, often multiple times, amid Israel’s campaign to starve, conquer, indefinitely occupy, ethnically cleanse, and possibly recolonize the coastal strip.
Each side accuses the other of thwarting cease-fire efforts. On Saturday, U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff rejected what he called Hamas’ “totally unacceptable” proposal for a truce in which 10 living and 18 dead Israeli hostages would be exchanged for an unspecified number of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
Former Israeli peace negotiator Daniel Levy toldDemocracy Now! on Monday that a cease-fire proposal mediated by Witkoff is “a bad deal for the Palestinians that will allow Israel to continue its ethnic cleansing of Gaza” and “walks back the commitment for a permanent cease-fire, Israeli withdrawal, and allowing in of humanitarian aid.”
Sherin Wafi (centre) and her daughter Mira (4) mourn during the funeral of her husband Hosam Wafi, who was killed by an Israeli strike in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, June 2, 2025
