The current situation
- At the time of writing, the confirmed death toll from Israel’s war on Gaza stands at 64,522 people in Gaza, with another 163,096 people wounded. As of May 2025, figures from classified IDF database listed 8,900 named fighters as dead or probably dead, at the same time the overall death toll reached 53,000. This means that, by the Israeli military’s own accounting, at least four in five Palestinians killed were civilians. Yet it is likely that the death toll is far higher: a further 11,000 are missing, many buried under the rubble. And many have died as an indirect consequence of Israel’s assault, from hunger and disease arising from Israel’s deliberate destruction of healthcare, housing, civilian infrastructure, and agricultural land and facilities, to the obstruction of aid supplies.
- As a result of Israel’s unabashed policy and practice of deliberate starving Gazans, in August 2025 the UN-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) reported that half a million Palestinians were suffering from an “entirely man-made” famine, and that residents of the Gaza City area are experiencing conditions of “starvation, destitution, and death”. It also found that starvation was spreading rapidly, with famine expected to be in much of the rest of Gaza by September 2025. United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Tom Fletcher described the IPC declaration as a “moment of collective shame for the world”. Israel’s starvation of Gazans continues is part of a multi-pronged assault on humanitarian aid: in 2024 nearly half of all aid workers killed across the globe died in Gaza.
- The declaration of famine in Gaza follows months of total or near-total blockade by Israel. In March 2025, Israel introduced an almost three-month total blockade on goods entering Gaza, with a limited amount of goods allowed in late-May. Israel then introduced a new system of food distribution operated by a US organisation, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), to replace the previous UN-led system. Since the operation of GHF-run aid distribution sites, Israeli army soldiers have repeatedly fired upon those searching for food, killing almost 2,000 Palestinians, in pre-meditated attacks. One American former soldier blew the whistle, offering a harrowing account of IDF war crimes at GHF-run sites. Other whistleblowers have since come forward and confirmed that personnel hired through American subcontractors to secure GHF sites also fired upon the aid-seekers.
- In early August, as part of Prime Minister Netanyahu’s avowed plan to fully occupy Gaza, Israel’s security cabinet approved plans to launch a ground invasion of Gaza’s largest city, which will again displace up to a million residents. In preparation for the invasion, in which Israel has called up 60,000 reservists, its military continued a longstanding campaign of assasinating Palestinian journalists: on 10 August, an Israeli airstrike targeted renowned Al-Jazeera reporter, Anas Al-Sharif, and five other journalists. The killing took the number of journalists killed by Israel in Gaza to over 190, since October 2023. Days after Al-Sharif’s assasination, reports revealed that Israel had established a intelligence unit dedicated to smearing Palestinian journalists, in order to legitimise their killing.
- In November 2024, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, former Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, and Hamas commander Mohammed Dei for war crimes and crimes against humanity. The charges against Netanyahu and Gallant included using starvation as a method of warfare; murder, persecution and other inhumane acts; and intentionally directing an attack against a civilian population. The charges against Deif included murder, extermination, torture, rape and other sexual violence, cruel treatment, taking hostages, and outrages upon personal dignity. In response, the United States has imposed sanctions against ICC judges and prosecutors for being a “national security threat” and “an instrument of lawfare” against the US and Israel.
- In January 2024, the International Court of Justice (ICJ, also known as the World Court), in response to a case brought by South Africa under the Genocide Convention, found that it was plausible that Israel’s actions in Gaza amounted to genocide. The Court imposed interim measures on Israel aimed at preventing the risk of genocide, which Israel ignored, along with further interim measures imposed in April. Numerous NGOs and human rights groups, international lawyers and genocide scholars have accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza, as well as the Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention, named after Ralph Lemkin, who first coined the term genocide.
- Israel’s war on Gaza has been waged in large part with US weapons, including all Israel’s fighter aircraft used to bomb Gaza, and most of the bombs and missiles to go with them. US military aid to Israel since October 7 2023 reached $17.9 billion by 30 September 2024, according to the Costs of War project at Brown University. The supplies include a constant supply of spare parts and munitions to keep Israel’s aircraft operating.
- On 2 September 2024, the UK government suspended around 30 export licences for military equipment to Israel. However, they allowed the supply of components for the F-35 combat aircraft to Israel to continue, provided these components go via a third country such as the US, and not directly. Israel has 45 F-35s, one of the aircraft it uses to bomb Gaza, including with devastating 2,000lb bombs. On the very day of the government’s decision, it was revealed that an F-35 was used in an attack on a supposed “safe zone” in Al-Mawasi in Gaza, killing 90 people. For more on the government’s decision and the role of the F-35, see our briefing.
- Palestinian human rights group Al-Haq, along with the Global Legal Action Network (GLAN), brought a judicial review case against the UK government over their continued arms supplies to Israel. In July 2025, permission to proceed was refused by the high court, which declined to pass judgment on the government’s genocide assessment, and whether its decision to continue to supply Israel with parts for its F-35 fighters was consistent with its duty to prevent genocide. Al-Haq and GLAN have since announced an appeal against the decision.
UK arms sales to Israel
UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy with Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, July 2024
UK arms sales to Israel are much smaller than those of the US or Germany, but nonetheless involve a significant supply of crucial components for Israeli weapons systems, including those that are being actively used in the genocide in Gaza. Detailed information on UK arms exports – both direct and indirect – to Israel can be found in our recent briefing. Further details of export licences can be found on our online UK export licences browser.
Between January 2015 to March 2025, the value of Single Individual Export Licences (SIELs) for arms sales to Israel was £634 million. However, this does not include the value of exports conducted using secretive open licences, in particular components for the F-35 combat aircraft, for which most exports are conducted under an Open General Export Licence (OGEL) (see below).
Moreover, a lot of UK arms sales to Israel go indirectly via the US, as components for major equipment made by the US and then sold (or provided as military aid) to Israel. A recent response to a Freedom of Information (FOI) request revealed that, from October 2021 to the end of 2023, a total of £165 million worth of ‘incorporation’ SIELs were issued for export to the US, for which Israel was one of the authorised destinations for the complete equipment that the UK components would go into, This far exceeds the value of SIELs for direct export to Israel during the same period. Of this figure, £52 million was for components for which Israel was the only authorised final destination.
The government’s partial suspension of export licences to Israel covered components for combat aircraft, helicopters and UAVs, and targeting equipment, which the government judged was for use in Gaza. However, it left in place licences for equipment such as components for trainer aircraft and naval vessels, as well as for components going to Israel’s arms industry to be included in equipment for onward export.
Thanks to another FOI request, information on UK companies with recent arms export licences to Israel can be explored on our interactive map.
The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter
Most importantly, the government exempted components for the F-35 from the suspension, despite admitting in court that there was a ‘clear risk’ that these planes would be used in serious violations of International Humanitarian Law (IHL).
The UK, and BAE Systems in particular, has been a major partner in the US F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program, supplying a wide variety of key components. According to Lockheed Martin, the prime contractor for the F-35, UK industry will supply 15% of every F-35 produced. BAE Systems, Leonardo and L3Harris are among the companies involved. All 75 companies registered for the OGEL covering the F-35 programme are shown on our interactive map.
As of March 2025, the USA had delivered 45 F-35 Joint Strike Fighters to Israel. Israel has a further 30 on order (data from SIPRI Arms Transfers Database and news reporting) having signed a deal with the United States in June 2024 to procure a third F-35 fighter jet squadron. Israel has been using the F-35s extensively to bomb Gaza, operating them at a far higher rate than normal. This has depended on a constant supply of spare parts from the US and other countries producing components, including the UK. A US Congressional hearing in December 2023 heard that programme officials were working at “breakneck speed” to rush spare parts for the F-35 to Israel. Thus, without continued supply from the UK arms industry as well as others, Israel would not be able to keep these planes flying and devastating Gaza.
UK arms exports to the US that relate to the F-35 programme are covered by an “Open General Export License” (OGEL), which allows companies registered for the OGEL to make unlimited deliveries related to the F-35 without further need for licensing, until further notice. The quantities exported under this OGEL are therefore unknowable. However, based on the unit cost of the F-35, and the UK’s 15% share, the value of UK components in Israel’s 45 aircraft is likely to be around £430 million, not counting spare parts. It is certainly the most significant element of the UK arms trade with Israel.
Like the UK, Austrailia plays a junior but still important role in the global supply of F-35 parts. According to the Austrailian Department of Defence, 75 Australian companies have contributed to the supply chain for the F-35 program, with 700 of the fighter jet’s “critical pieces” being manufactured in Victoria alone. Austrailia’s Green Party has urged the government to halt the supply, after the latter announced its intention to recognise the state of Palestine.
