Benjamin Netanyahu welcomes a delivery of F-35s at Nevatim. (Photo: Kobi Gideon / GPO)
Exclusive: Twice as many supplies for Israel’s “most lethal” fighter jets were sent from Britain than previously known.
F-35 components have been shipped from an RAF base to Israel fourteen times amid the Gaza genocide, it can be revealed.
At least two of the deliveries took place this summer shortly after Keir Starmer became UK prime minister.
The shipments were dispatched from a Royal Air Force base in Marham, Norfolk. They were transferred to Nevatim airbase which houses the Israeli air force’s squadrons of F-35 jets.
Declassified previously revealed that seven shipments of F-35 parts had been transported from RAF Marham to Israel since the Gaza bombing began.
The Ministry of Defence has now admitted that there were in fact “14 transfers of F-35 components from RAF Marham to Israel between October 2023 and August 2024”.
There have been no further “exports of F-35 parts direct to Israel via RAF Marham since the licensing suspension” announced by the Labour government in September 2024.
It released the data in response to a parliamentary question tabled by Clive Lewis, the MP for Norwich South.
The revelation could implicate British ministers in war crimes. An Israeli F-35 fighter jet was used to bomb a designated safe zone in Gaza, killing 90 people, in July.
Sam Perlo-Freeman of Campaign Against Arms Trade told Declassified: “The F-35 plays a key role in Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza. By not merely permitting but actively facilitating the supply of F-35 components to Israel from RAF bases, UK ministers have made themselves parties to war crimes, and risked making UK military personnel complicit”
Downing Street accepts ‘clear risk’ that fighter jet parts sold to Israel could be used to violate international humanitarian law, High Court hears
THE British government accepts there is a “clear risk” that parts for lethal fighter jets might be used by Israel to violate international humanitarian law but continues to export them anyway, the High Court heard today.
Global Legal Action Network (Glan) and human rights group Al-Haq have brought legal action against the Department for Business and Trade, accusing it of breaking its own rules by continuing exports if there is such a risk.
Between October and May, former business secretary Kemi Badenoch approved over 100 licences to Israel throughout its brutal onslaught on Gaza.
In September, the new Labour government eventually moved to ban just 30 out of 361 licences, excluding components for F-35 jets.
Described by its manufacturer Lockheed Martin as the “most lethal” fighter jet in the world, F-35s have been used extensively in Israel’s bloodshed.
Capable of dropping 2,000lb bombs, they are linked to the murder of 90 people in the al-Mawasi “safe zone” in July.
There are 79 companies registered in Britain that hold licences to export parts for the jet.
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/O74hZCKKdpAGenocide 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.Vote For Genocide Vote Labour.
Carla Denyer is the co-leader of the Green Party in England and Wales (Image: BristolLive)
Bristol Green Party candidate Carla Denyer is demanding the UK scale up action against the Israeli government over the Gaza conflict. The Greens are calling for an end to all arms sales to Israel, prosecutions of war criminals and sanctions on Israel’s leaders.
The Green Party co-leader, who will stand in Bristol Central, has called for the UK to suspend arms export licences to Israel and to take measures such as excluding Israel from music and sporting events.
Ms Denyer said: “It is clear that the Israeli government is refusing to heed warnings about the catastrophic implications of an all-out attack on Rafah. The UK government must now demand that Israel stop the killing, calling for an immediate ceasefire. Hamas must also agree to this ceasefire of course, and release all hostages.
“Decisions made by the UK government – above all its failure, month after month, to call for an immediate ceasefire – have made them complicit in the killing of almost 28,000 people to date, 12,000 of whom are children.
“Israel relies on certain weapon parts manufactured in the UK, including the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter whose essential components are made here. A Dutch court has ordered the state to cease the export of F-35 spare parts to Israel. We call on the UK government to follow suit.
“Greens would implement the requirements of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign across the UK economy. This would include excluding Israel from international sporting and music events.
“It is clear that only outside pressure will make Israel stop its mass killing. We can increase the pressure on Israeli leaders by introducing targeted sanctions against key individuals. This would include travel bans and asset freezes on Israel’s leadership and cabinet members, in particular those calling for new settlements in Gaza and the annexation of the West Bank.
“Finally, we would encourage UK authorities including the Metropolitan Police and director of public prosecutions to pursue perpetrators of war crimes committed where UK citizens are the victims or where UK citizens are potential perpetrators.
A protester occupies the roof of Howmet Fastening Systems in Leicester, U.K., which makes components for Israeli F-35s, in October 2023. (Photo: Palestine Action)
“Surely it’s time to stop all arm shipments to Israel,” said one British lawmaker, “and implement targeted sanctions against members of the Israeli leadership.”
While the White House has claimed U.S. President Joe Biden is growing increasingly “frustrated” with Israel’s bombardment of Gaza—largely made possible by U.S. military aid—calls are growing in Europe for governments to halt arms exports to stop their own contributions to the mass killing.
After a Dutch court ordered the Netherlands to stop exporting F-35 fighter jet parts to Israel on Monday, ruling that the country was running a “clear risk” of helping Israel to violate international human rights law, several British lawmakers intensified their demands that the U.K. also halt arms exports.
“Selling arms to Israel for its war on Gaza is incompatible with U.K. and international law,” said Diane Abbott, a Labour Party member in British Parliament. “[Prime Minister Rishi] Sunak should follow suit and ban weapon sales to Israel.”
Natalie Bennett, a member of the Green Party in the British House of Lords, spoke on Tuesday about six-year-old Hind Rajab, whose body was found last week in a car in which her family members had tried to flee Gaza City. The car was riddled with bullet holes, and an ambulance nearby, which paramedics had sent to rescue Hind, had been bombed.
“Is the government challenging the Israeli government about risks to hundreds of thousands of children in Rafah, now in the path of the Israeli offensive?” said Bennett. “Surely it’s time to stop all arm shipments to Israel… and implement targeted sanctions against members of the Israeli leadership.”
Natalie Bennett, a @TheGreenParty peer, asks David Cameron about 6 year old Hind, her family & the 2 paramedics sent to rescue her, who were all killed by Israel. She also says isn't it time that UK arms exports to Israel are stopped.
The U.K. provides about 15% of the components of Israel’s F-35 bombers—the Israeli Air Force’s “flagship asset,” according to the Royal United Services Institute—and has licensed more than $594 million in military exports to Israel since 2015.
While the U.S. Senate on Tuesday passed a $95 billion foreign aid bill, including $14.1 billion for Israel, some European governments are working to end their complicity in Israel’s mass killing of at least 28,576 Palestinians so far in attacks that have also wounded at least 68,291 and left at least 17,000 children orphaned.
On February 6, the Walloon regional government in Belgium suspended two licenses for the export gunpowder to Israel, citing the International Court of Justice’s (ICJ) interim ruling last month which found that Israel is “plausibly” committing a genocide in Gaza.
Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said in late January that the government had halted all arms sales to Israel in October, when Israel began its bombardment of Gaza in retaliation for a Hamas-led attack on October 7.
José Albares, Spain’s foreign minister, also said last month that the Spanish government had done the same, but El Diarioreported on Sunday that the country had actually exported $1.1 million in ammunition to Israel in November.
“The suspension of arms transfers to Israel must be comprehensive and permanent, and not just temporary,” said Alberto Estévez, a spokesperson on weapons issues at Amnesty International Spain. “The Spanish government has wanted to be an example in this crisis in the face of other much more complicit governments, but it must be more forceful to promote a European arms embargo on Israel and Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups, in addition to pressuring the United States to stop the supply of arms to Israel and support the imposition of a global embargo on the U.N. Security Council.”
On Wednesday, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez joined Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar in writing to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and demanding an “urgent review” of Israel’s compliance with human rights obligations under its trade deal with the European Union.
“Against the background of the risk of an even greater humanitarian catastrophe posed by the imminent threat of Israeli military operations in Rafah, and given what has occurred, and continues to occur in Gaza since October 2023, including widespread concern about possible breaches of international humanitarian law and international human rights laws by Israel, we ask that the Commission undertake an urgent review of whether Israel is complying with its obligations, including under the E.U./Israel Association Agreement, which makes respect for human rights and democratic principles an essential element of the relationship,” wrote Sánchez and Varadkar.
The EU's commitment to human rights and dignity can have no exceptions.
Given the critical situation in Rafah, Ireland and Spain have just requested the @EU_Commission to urgently review whether Israel is complying with its obligations to respect human rights in Gaza.
The two leaders reiterated their call for an immediate humanitarian cease-fire, which was supported by a large majority of countries in a vote at the U.N. General Assembly in December, “including by 17 E.U. member states.”
Varadkar and Sánchez also pointed to the ICJ’s interim ruling in South Africa’s case last month, in which the country accused Israel of genocidal violence against Palestinians.
The orders of the ICJ, which demanded that Israel ensure that humanitarian aid can reach Gaza residents and that its military is not committing acts of genocide, “are binding,” the leaders reminded the European Union.
An F-35 takes off from RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus, June 24, 2019
ARMS trade campaigners have produced a map showing locations across Britain where components are made for F-35 warplanes being used by Israel to attack Gaza.
The group says 15 per cent of the components used to build F-35s are made in Britain in deals worth hundreds of millions of pounds for arms manufacturers.
CAAT said: “The map will enable campaigners across the country to find out where the components are produced and to protest [against] the companies who are profiting from the genocide Israel is committing in Gaza on their doorsteps.
“Foreign Secretary David Cameron recommended continuing arms sales to Israel on December 12 2023, despite previous Foreign Office assessments stating there were ‘serious concerns’ about breaches of international humanitarian law (IHL) and Israel’s commitment and ability to comply with IHL.
“Cameron further accepted that Israel has a different interpretation of its IHL obligations.”
On January 26 the International Court of Justice in The Hague ruled that there was a “plausible” case that Israel was committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.
