Did the UK suspend arms sales to Israel?

The London-based Daily Mail reported on Friday that the UK civil service had already begun suspending arms export licenses to Israel — effectively enacting an arms embargo on Tel Aviv amid its war on Gaza.

The reports were shared widely on social media, with some pro-Palestine activists and groups hailing the move as a positive step towards ending Israel's brutal onslaught, which has killed close to 40,000 people and wounded tens of thousands more since October.

An unnamed source told the paper that "new licence requests are put into Room 101 indefinitely" by the Department for Business and Trade.

On Monday, the Jewish Chronicle carried a similar article citing an unnamed individual involved in the matter who said they were declined a request for an export license for Israel.

The unnamed source said they received a notice that said export licenses had been "suspended pending policy review”.

However, the Department for Business and Trade on Monday denied that a change in policy has taken place.

"There has been no change to our approach to export licences to Israel," a spokesperson for the department said in a statement shared with The New Arab and other media outlets, including the Mail and Jewish Chronicle.

"We continue to review export licence applications on a case-by-case basis against the Strategic Export Licensing Criteria.

“It is vital that we uphold both our domestic and international legal obligations when it comes to arms exports. We are reviewing the advice regarding exports to Israel and no decision has been made."

The New Arab asked the department to confirm whether civil servants had indeed paused issuing licenses, however received no further comment.

In June, the previous Conservative government of Rishi Sunak confirmed that 108 arms export licenses of undisclosed value had been granted to Israel between 7 October 2023 and May 2024

A freedom of information request from NGO Christian Aid revealed that 20 firms had been granted standard individual export licenses for arms to Israel during this period, while 30 other companies had pending applications.

Following his appointment in July, UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy commissioned new legal advice on the matter, with a decision yet to be made on whether arms exports to Israel will continue.

According to the UK's Strategic Export Licensing Criteria, arms export licenses should not be granted if there is a "clear risk" of the arms being used for "serious violation of international humanitarian law".

Israel is currently on trial at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) accused of committing genocide in Gaza, with the World Court having ordered Israel to do everything it could to prevent acts of genocide during its military onslaught.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant are also the subject of International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant applications on war crimes charges.

Activists have accused the UK government of deliberately delaying a decision while Israel continues its war on Gaza.

"The UK government’s delay in making a decision on whether to stop arms exports to Israel is unconscionable," the Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) said in a statement.

"It is at total odds with Britain’s clear moral and legal responsibility not to render aid and assistance to Israel’s genocide in the Gaza Strip, its unlawful military occupation of the West Bank including East Jerusalem, and its regime of apartheid against all Palestinians."