UK urged to ban arms sales to Israel after three military veterans killed in Gaza
A vehicle where World Central Kitchen (WCK) employees were killed in an Israeli air strike in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza on 2 April 2024
Rayhan Uddin reports in Middle East Eye on 3 April 2024:
Pressure is mounting on the UK government to suspend arms sales to Israel, after Israeli air strikes killed three British former military veterans in Gaza.
The men were among seven aid workers with World Central Kitchen (WCK) targeted by three Israeli drone strikes in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza, on Monday evening. The others killed were Palestinian, Polish, Australian and a US-Canadian dual citizen.
The strike took place just hours after the WCK team had unloaded a shipment of 100 tonnes of food aid into Gaza.
Lord Peter Ricketts, a former national security adviser and former Foreign Office permanent secretary, called for a suspension of UK arms exports to Israel on Wednesday morning. “I think there’s abundant evidence now that Israel hasn’t been taking enough care to fulfil its obligations on the safety of civilians. And a country that gets arms from the UK has to comply with international humanitarian law,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme. “That’s a condition of the arms export licence. So honestly, I think the time has come to send that signal.
“It won’t change the course of the war. It would be a powerful political message. And it might just stimulate debate in the US as well, which would be the real game-changer if the Americans began to think about putting limits restrictions on the use of American weapons in Israel.”
The Liberal Democrat party also reiterated its position that the government should suspend weapons sales to Israel. Foreign affairs spokesperson Layla Moran said the party had for years called for the government to toughen up rules on arms exports, to ensure that UK weapons were “never used in possible human rights abuses or breaches of international law”.
“We have called for a ‘presumption of denial’ to be introduced for governments listed by the Foreign Office as human rights priorities, which includes the government of Israel,” Moran, who is the first British MP of Palestinian descent, told MEE. “Clearly, with the dreadful current conflict in Gaza, it’s beyond time for the UK government to introduce such a policy and suspend arms exports to Israel immediately.”
Last week, 130 British MPs and peers urged a ban on weapons sales, stating that it was “totally unacceptable” UK-made weapons were being used by the Israeli military in Gaza. That letter cited that UK-manufactured weapons parts were likely used to bomb British doctors working for Medical Aid for Palestinians in January.