UK firms sent thousands of military munitions to Israel despite arms export ban, report finds

UK firms sent thousands of military munitions to Israel despite arms export ban, report finds
Britain's Foreign Secretary David Lammy makes a statement on arms sales to Israel in the parliament, Sept. 2, 2024. (AFP)
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Updated 07 May 2025
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UK firms sent thousands of military munitions to Israel despite arms export ban, report finds

UK firms sent thousands of military munitions to Israel despite arms export ban, report finds
  • ‘8,630 separate munitions’ sent to Israel in the category of ‘bombs, grenades, torpedoes, mines, missiles’ since suspension of 30 arms-export licenses in September
  • Analysis by campaign groups of Israel Tax Authority data also finds deliveries of F-35 components as recently as March

LONDON: UK firms continued to send thousands of arms and other military items to Israel despite an announcement by the British government in September that it was suspending about 30 arms-export licenses for the country, according to a report published on Wednesday.

Campaign groups — including the Palestinian Youth Movement, Progressive International, and Workers for a Free Palestine — analyzed data from the Israel Tax Authority and found that UK businesses were still sending shipments of military items, including munitions, arms and aircraft parts.

Their report states that F-35 fighter jet components were delivered to Israel as recently as March, more than five months after the UK government suspended the 30 arms-export licenses, including a ban on aircraft parts. Fighter aircraft, including F-35s and combat drones, have been a critical element of Israel’s military offensive in Gaza since the war began in October 2023, carrying out airstrikes across the territory.

The report said that 8,630 separate munitions had been sent since the license suspensions in September 2024 in the category of “bombs, grenades, torpedoes, mines, missiles and similar munitions of war and parts thereof.” UK firms also delivered four shipments of arms to Israel that included 146 items identified under a customs code as “tanks and other armoured fighting vehicles, motorised, whether or not fitted with weapons, and parts of such vehicles.”

The authors of the report also found evidence that 150,000 bullets were shipped from the UK to Israel in October 2023, prior to the suspension of the licenses.

John McDonnell, a former Labour shadow chancellor, and MP Zarah Sultana have sent a letter to Foreign Secretary David Lammy calling for an investigation into the report’s findings.

Lammy told Parliament in October that much of the military equipment the UK sends to Israel “is defensive in nature. It is not what we describe routinely as arms.”

McDonnell and Sultana said it would be a resignation issue if it was discovered that he misled parliament and the public about the suspension of arms-export licenses to Israel.

They also called for an immediate halt to all arms exports to Israel and said the public “deserves to know the full scale of the UK’s complicity in crimes against humanity.”

Sultana said: “This explosive report shows the government has been lying to us about the arms it is supplying to Israel while it wages genocide in Gaza. Far from ‘helmets and goggles,’ the government has been sending thousands of arms and ammunition goods.”

McDonnell called on the government to “come clean in response to this extremely concerning evidence and halt all British arms exports to Israel to ensure no British-made weapons are used in Netanyahu’s new and terrifying plans to annex the Gaza Strip and ethnically cleanse the land.”

The Israeli military campaign in Gaza has killed more than 50,000 Palestinians since the start of the war in October 2023, following the deadly attack by Hamas on southern Israel.

The Israeli government faces an ongoing case at the International Court of Justice over its military actions in Gaza, which have led to a humanitarian crisis and mass killings. In addition, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for crimes against humanity and war crimes related to the war in Gaza.

In a statement to The Guardian newspaper, a Foreign Office spokesperson said: “This government has suspended relevant licenses for the (Israeli army) that might be used to commit or facilitate serious violations of international humanitarian law in Gaza.

“Of the remaining licenses for Israel, the vast majority are not for the Israeli Defense Forces but are for civilian purposes or reexport, and therefore are not used in the war in Gaza. The only exemption is the F-35 program due to its strategic role in NATO and wider implications for international peace and security.

“Any suggestion that the UK is licensing other weapons for use by Israel in the war in Gaza is misleading. The UK totally opposes an expansion of Israel’s military operations in Gaza. We urge all parties to return urgently to talks, implement the ceasefire agreement in full, secure the release of hostages taken by Hamas, and work towards a permanent peace.”


UN says Taliban committing ‘rights violations’ against Afghan returnees

UN says Taliban committing ‘rights violations’ against Afghan returnees
Updated 2 sec ago
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UN says Taliban committing ‘rights violations’ against Afghan returnees

UN says Taliban committing ‘rights violations’ against Afghan returnees
KABUL: A United Nations report published Thursday said Taliban authorities were committing human rights violations, including torture and arbitrary detention, against Afghans forced to return by Iran and Pakistan.

“People returning to the country who were at particular risk of reprisals and other human rights violations by the de facto (Taliban) authorities were women and girls, individuals affiliated with the former government and its security forces, media workers and civil society,” the UN said in a statement accompanying the release of the report.

“These violations have included torture and ill-treatment, arbitrary arrest and detention, and threats to personal security.”

Russian rescuers find missing plane in flames in far east

Russian rescuers find missing plane in flames in far east
Updated 6 min 8 sec ago
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Russian rescuers find missing plane in flames in far east

Russian rescuers find missing plane in flames in far east
  • A passenger plane carrying 49 people crashed in Russia’s far eastern region of Amur on Thursday, authorities said

MOSCOW: Russian rescuers have found the fuselage of an Antonov-24 passenger plane carrying 49 passengers that disappeared from radar earlier in Russia's far east, the emergencies ministry said Thursday.

"An Mi-8 helicopter operated by Rosaviatsiya (Russia's civil aviation authority) has spotted the burning fuselage of the aircraft," Russia's emergencies ministry said on Telegram.

Authorities confrimed on Thursday that the twin-engine Antonov-24 operated by Angara Airlines, was headed to the town of Tynda from the city of Blagoveshchensk when it disappeared from radar, regional governor Vassily Orlov said on Telegram.

The helicopter saw no evidence of survivors from above, local rescuers said. The Amur region’s civil defense agency said it was dispatching rescuers to the scene.

“At the moment, 25 people and five units of equipment have been dispatched, and four aircraft with crews are on standby,” it said.


Wife of Scotland’s former first minister says Israel starving her family in Gaza

Wife of Scotland’s former first minister says Israel starving her family in Gaza
Updated 24 July 2025
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Wife of Scotland’s former first minister says Israel starving her family in Gaza

Wife of Scotland’s former first minister says Israel starving her family in Gaza
  • Nadia El-Nakla, Humza Yousaf slam the Israeli regime’s actions
  • Gaza’s children ‘starved, displaced, bombed’ as ‘world watches’

LONDON: Nadia El-Nakla, the wife of former first minister of Scotland, Humza Yousaf, says Israel is starving her family in the Gaza Strip.

El-Nakla and Yousaf, the former leader of the Scottish National Party, appeared together in a video on Wednesday, addressing their family’s suffering in Gaza, where Israel faces charges of war crimes and genocide.

El-Nakla said the Israeli government was deliberately starving her cousin Sally and her four children, as well as her aunt Hanan, her children, and grandchildren, including a 7-month-old baby.

Her family lives in the town of Deir Al-Balah, where Israeli forces have launched a bombing campaign this week.

Ongoing Israeli attacks and the policy of aid restrictions in Gaza have led to food shortages, impacting the 2 million residents. Over 100 human rights organizations warned this week that “mass starvation” is spreading in Gaza.

She said that “starving people were being forced to run while being shot and bombed.”

Yousaf said children in Gaza were being “starved, displaced, bombed, all while the world watches.”

“Sally is one of millions in Gaza. Her husband goes out all day searching for food, often to come home with nothing,” the former SNP leader said.

“And when I say home, I mean a tent and almost 40-degree heat.”

He said that doctors and journalists have become too weak to treat patients or cover news due to severe starvation.

El-Nakla added that “this is a deliberate starvation of the Palestinian people ... This form of warfare is sickening and the stories and images from my family and millions of others in Gaza are absolutely gut-wrenching.

“Can you imagine not being able to feed your children yet knowing the food you so desperately need is only a few miles away?”

She went on: “Sally’s life matters, Palestinian lives matter, and I am begging those who have the power to open the borders to do so now and let the people of Gaza live.”

El-Nakla’s parents, Maged and Elizabeth, were trapped in Gaza for four weeks after visiting family when the war began following Hamas’ attack on Israel on Oct. 7. They later left through Egypt along with other British nationals.

The Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza reported on Wednesday that 10 individuals died from malnutrition in the previous 24 hours.

The UK, along with 28 nations, accused Israel this week of inhumane actions, including the “drip feeding” of aid and the killing of civilians seeking food and water in Gaza.


Indonesia arrests 2 foreigners for smuggling cocaine to Bali

Indonesia arrests 2 foreigners for smuggling cocaine to Bali
Updated 24 July 2025
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Indonesia arrests 2 foreigners for smuggling cocaine to Bali

Indonesia arrests 2 foreigners for smuggling cocaine to Bali
  • Indonesia’s last executions, of a citizen and three foreigners, were carried out in July 2016
  • The Denpasar District Court later Thursday is set to sentence two different groups of foreigners on drug charges
DENPASAR: Indonesian authorities said Thursday they have arrested two foreigners accused of smuggling cocaine to the tourist island of Bali.
A Brazilian man and a South African woman were arrested separately on July 13 after customs officers at Bali’s international airport saw suspicious items in the man’s luggage and the woman’s underwear on X-ray scans.
Indonesia has extremely strict drug laws, and convicted smugglers are sometimes executed by firing squad.
The 25-year-old Brazilian man, who police identified by his initials as YB, was arrested with 3,086.36 grams (6.8 pounds) of cocaine in the lining of his suitcase and backpack shortly after he arrived at the airport from Dubai, said Made Sinar Subawa, head of the Eradication Division at Bali’s Narcotic Agency.
The same day, customs officers caught a 32-year-old South African woman, identified as LN, and seized 990.83 grams (2.1 pounds) of cocaine she in her underwear, Subawa said.
During interrogation, YB said that he was promised 400 million rupiah ($2,450) to hand the cocaine he obtained in Brasilia to a man he called as Tio Paulo, while LN expected to get 25 million rupiah ($1,500) after deliver the drugs to someone she identified as Cindy, according to Subawa.
Subawa said a police operation failed to catch the two people named by the suspects, whom police believe are low-level distributors.
Authorities presented the suspects wearing orange prison uniforms and masks, with their hands handcuffed, at a news conference in Denpasar, the capital, along with the cocaine they were found with.
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime says Indonesia is a major drug-smuggling hub despite having some of the strictest drug laws in the world, in part because international drug syndicates target its young population.
The Denpasar District Court later Thursday is set to sentence two other groups of foreigners on drug charges. Verdicts for an Argentine woman and a British man who were accused of smuggling cocaine onto the island, and for drug offense against a group of three British nationals, including a woman, are expected to be read out separately at the same court.
About 530 people are on death row in Indonesia, mostly for drug-related crimes, including 96 foreigners, the Ministry of Immigration and Corrections’ data showed. Indonesia’s last executions, of a citizen and three foreigners, were carried out in July 2016.

Thai and Cambodian soldiers fire at each other in disputed border area, injuring 3

Thai and Cambodian soldiers fire at each other in disputed border area, injuring 3
Updated 24 July 2025
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Thai and Cambodian soldiers fire at each other in disputed border area, injuring 3

Thai and Cambodian soldiers fire at each other in disputed border area, injuring 3
  • Thai and Cambodian soldiers have fired at each other in multiple contested border areas after the nations downgraded their diplomatic relations in a rapidly escalating dispute

BANGKOK: Thai and Cambodian soldiers fired at each other in multiple contested border areas Thursday, injuring three civilians, after the nations downgraded their diplomatic relations in a rapidly escalating dispute.

A livestream video from Thailand’s side showed people running from their homes and hiding in a concrete bunker Thursday morning as explosions sounded periodically. Clashes appeared to be ongoing in several areas.

The first clash Thursday morning happened in an area where the ancient Prasat Ta Moan Thom temple stands along the border of Thailand’s Surin province and Cambodia Oddar Meanchey province. Both Thailand and Cambodia accused each other of opening fire first.

Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Manet said Thailand attacked Cambodian army positions at Prasat Ta Moan Thom and Prasat Ta Krabey in Oddar Meanchey province and expanded to the area along Cambodia’s Preah Vihear province and Thailand’s Ubon Ratchathani province.

“Cambodia has always maintained a position of peaceful resolution of problems, but in this case, we have no choice but to respond with armed force against armed aggression,” said the Prime Minister.

The Thai army said three civilians in Surin province were injured when Cambodia fired artillery shells into a residential area. It said residents in the area had been evacuated afterward.

Earlier Thursday, Cambodia said it was downgrading diplomatic relations with Thailand to their lowest level, expelling the Thai ambassador and recalling all Cambodian staff from its embassy in Bangkok. That was in response to Thailand closing its northeastern border crossings with Cambodia, withdrawing its ambassador and expelling the Cambodian ambassador Wednesday to protest a land mine blast that wounded five Thai soldiers.

Relations between the Southeast Asian neighbors have deteriorated sharply since May when a Cambodian soldier was killed in an armed confrontation in another of the several small patches of land both countries claim as their own territory.

The Thai army said of Thursday’s initial clash that its forces heard an unmanned aerial vehicle before seeing six armed Cambodian soldiers moving closer to Thailand’s station. It said Thai soldiers tried to shout at them to defuse the situation but the Cambodian side started to open fire.

Cambodia’s Defense Ministry said Thailand started the armed clash and Cambodia “acted strictly within the bounds of self-defense, responding to an unprovoked incursion by Thai troops that violated our territorial integrity.”

Cambodian Senate President Hun Sen posted on his Facebook page, urging people not to panic and have faith in their government and the military.

The Thai embassy in Phnom Penh posted on Facebook that there were clashes at several border areas that could continue to escalate. It urged Thai nationals in Cambodia to leave the country if they could and advised others not to travel to Cambodia unless absolutely necessary.

On Wednesday, a land mine blast near the border wounded five Thai soldiers, one of whom lost a leg. A week earlier, a land mine in a different contested area exploded and wounded three Thai soldiers when one of them stepped on it and lost a foot.

Thai authorities have alleged the mines were newly laid along paths that by mutual agreement were supposed to be safe. They said the mines were Russian-made and not of a type employed by Thailand’s military. Cambodia rejected Thailand’s account as “baseless accusations,” pointing out that many unexploded mines and other ordnance are a legacy of 20th century wars and unrest.

Nationalist passions on both sides have further inflamed the situation, and Thailand’s prime minister was suspended from office on July 1 to be investigated for possible ethics violations over her handling of the border dispute.

Border disputes are longstanding issues that have caused periodic tensions between the countries. The most prominent and violent conflicts have been around the 1,000-year-old Preah Vihear temple.

In 1962, the International Court of Justice awarded sovereignty over the temple area to Cambodia and that became a major irritant in the relations of both countries.

Cambodia went back to the court in 2011, following several clashes between its army and Thai forces which killed about 20 people and displaced thousands. The court reaffirmed the ruling in 2013, a decision that still rattled Thailand.