According to a report by the UK’s Guardian newspaper, the High Court of Britain ruled on June 30th that although it was acknowledged that the weapons could be used to violate international humanitarian law in the Gaza Strip, it was legal for Britain to export F-35 fighter jet parts to Israel.
The report stated that two judges expressed in a 72-page ruling that the court should not intervene in sensitive political issues, which were best left to ministers and parliament. British government ministers believed that banning the sale of these parts would lead to the stagnation of the entire F-35 fighter jet program and have broader implications for NATO and European security. The UK is the second largest supplier of parts to Israel after the United States.
The court accepted the government’s argument that the positive contribution to broader peace and security needed to be balanced with the clear risk that these weapons could be used to violate international humanitarian law, the report added.
In response to the ruling, Yasmin Ahmed, the UK director of Human Rights Watch, stated, “We are very disappointed with this decision.” “Even in the face of genocidal behavior and other atrocities, the British courts have given the green light for the government to continue supplying Israel with lethal F-35 fighter jet parts used in the Gaza Strip.”
On September 2nd last year, British Foreign Secretary David Ramie announced in the House of Commons that the British government had evaluated that weapons exported to Israel containing British-made components might be used in military operations in the Gaza Strip, thus posing a serious risk of violating international humanitarian law. Therefore, effective immediately, 30 weapons export licenses to Israel were suspended. However, more than 300 weapons export licenses to Israel remained valid.
Multiple foreign media outlets noted that Ramie specifically mentioned that parts of F-35 fighter jets manufactured by Britain would not be affected by the suspension if they were not shipped directly to Israel. Multiple organizations criticized the British government for not doing enough, as the F-35 fighter jets were also widely used in the Gaza Strip. Sam Perlo-Freeman, a research coordinator for the UK-based anti-arms trade campaign group Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT), said that while welcoming the government’s “long overdue” move on addressing the overwhelming evidence of Israeli war crimes in the Gaza Strip, it was “intolerable and unreasonable” to exempt F-35 fighter jet parts from suspension.
On June 24th, local time, the health department in the Gaza Strip issued a statement stating that since the outbreak of a new round of conflict between Palestine and Israel on October 7th, 2023, Israeli military operations in Gaza have resulted in 56,077 deaths and 131,848 injuries. The death toll since March 18th, 2025 has reached 5,759 with 19,807 injured.