From Arms to Espionage: How Britain Is Fueling the War on Gaza

Since the start of “Israel’s” war on Gaza, the United Kingdom has backed the occupying force with military, intelligence, and logistical support, a role that has contributed to the deaths and injuries of tens of thousands of Palestinians.

British involvement has ranged from surveillance flights over Gaza, ostensibly to search for Israeli hostages, to directly sharing intelligence that enabled Israeli airstrikes on the very areas under watch.

The UK has also supplied large quantities of weapons to “Israel,” including components for F-35 fighter jets used in daily bombings, and has hosted Israeli Occupation Forces for training on British soil, a fact confirmed by Armed Forces Minister Luke Pollard in June 2025.

The Daily Telegraph revealed that the UK secretly deployed an additional 500 troops to its bases in Cyprus after “Israel” began its bombardment of Gaza.

BBC Verify tracked Israeli warplanes operating in British airspace and others landing at the Royal Air Force base in Cyprus to receive undisclosed support, likely including weapons and refueling services.

Independent outlet Drop Site and other flight-tracking platforms published detailed records of several Israeli aircraft refueling at RAF Brize Norton and RAF Fairford, according to a BBC report on July 22, 2025.

According to leaked classified documents obtained by the British investigative outlet Declassified, the UK secretly provided training and advice to the Israeli military on psychological warfare and cyber operations targeting Gaza.

The British Army’s 77th Brigade worked closely with Israeli Occupation Forces, sharing strategies and techniques for modern information warfare, including cyberattacks, propaganda campaigns and efforts to counter resistance narratives online.

Egregious Spying

Following revelations that British aircraft spied over Gaza and passed intelligence to “Israel” which was then used to bomb and kill thousands of Palestinians, the UK government has faced mounting media scrutiny and the publication of damning documents.

On July 21, 2025, British journalist Phil Miller from Declassified confronted Air Chief Marshal Rich Knighton over the UK’s role in the war on Gaza, its intelligence-sharing with “Israel” and its surveillance of Palestinian resistance.

Miller questioned Knighton about his recent meeting in London with the head of the Israeli Air Force, who visited the UK in July, accusing him of backing Israeli war crimes.

“Why are you still sharing intelligence with the Israeli military?” His colleague, squadron leader Ryan Kerr, repeatedly tried to stop the interview by shoving our reporter.

“Why are you still sharing intelligence with Benjamin Netanyahu while he’s wanted by the international criminal court for war crimes in Gaza?” His private secretary, Andie Schaer, blocked one of our cameras before declining to comment on behalf of her boss.

He went further, questioning why the UK continues to cooperate with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, despite his being wanted by the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes in Gaza.

Knighton has come under fire from British campaigners who accuse him of complicity in the Israeli crimes. 

As the officer responsible for Britain’s surveillance aircraft over Gaza, he is alleged to have facilitated the transfer of target coordinates used in deadly Israeli airstrikes on Palestinian areas.

According to local reports, the UK has carried out more than 500 surveillance flights over Gaza on behalf of “Israel” since December 2023. 

The missions, which targeted Hamas and broader resistance networks, are believed to have contributed to the bombing and killing of Palestinian civilians.

The reconnaissance operations were conducted using Shadow R1 aircraft based at the RAF’s Akrotiri base in Cyprus.

According to the National, “foreign Secretary David Lammy, the UK’s Foreign Secretary, confirmed in a letter that RAF aircraft were being used over Gaza to retrieve information on hostages.” 

Foreign Secretary David Lammy says surveillance planes ‘do not have a combat role.’

Because of Britain's role in supporting the war on Gaza, from aiding military operations to contributing to the siege and starvation of its population, even the Daily Express, one of the UK's most right-wing tabloids known for featuring crusader imagery on its front pages, appeared to break ranks.

The paper issued a rare and urgent call to end the suffering of children in Gaza, publishing a front-page appeal that read, “For mercy’s sake [...] stop this now.”

The paper described the plight of Gaza’s children as “a shame on us all” and called for urgent action to end what it referred to as “the hell civilians, especially children, are enduring in Gaza.”

Deadly Weapons

Britain plays a key and controversial role in the ongoing conflict by supplying spare parts for aircraft, weapons and ammunition to “Israel.”

This has led activists to storm the websites of companies that provide arms to “Israel,” protesting against the Israeli offensive on Gaza.

Documents published in 2024 by the sites Declassified and The Ditch reveal that components for the F-35 fighter jet were shipped directly to “Israel” 14 times from a British airbase to Israel’s Nevatim airbase.

According to a report by the pressure group Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT), details of which were shared by the BBC on July 22, 2025, the United Kingdom supplies between 13 and 15 percent of the components used in the F-35 aircraft.

After the Labor Party came to power in 2024, it suspended 30 out of 350 arms export licenses, yet shipments of aircraft parts and other weapons continued.

The Irish investigative news site The Ditch revealed on June 9, 2025, that a British company had sent 1,000 ammunition boxes made in the UK to “Israel,” shipping them through ammunition containers to Israeli ports.

Despite protests and legal challenges, a British judge ruled in June 2025 to allow the continued supply of essential spare parts for these aircraft from the UK to “Israel.”

Dearbhla Minogue, a leading lawyer with the Global Legal Action Network, told Declassified that Britain’s ongoing supply of aircraft and weapons to “Israel,” despite restrictions imposed in September 2024, amounts to prosecuting British ministers for war crimes, for the killing of innocent Palestinian civilians with these arms.

In an article titled "How exactly has Britain supported Israel’s military assault on Gaza? The public has a right to know," published in The Guardian on June 3, 3035, former Labor leader Jeremy Corbyn called for a public inquiry into his country’s role in the devastation of Gaza.

He argued that just as the Chilcot Inquiry was established in 2016 to examine Britain’s involvement in the disastrous Iraq war, a similar investigation is urgently needed now into the UK’s role in Gaza.

Corbyn emphasized that the inquiry must reveal which weapons were supplied to “Israel,” which of those were used to kill Palestinians, and what legal advice the government received.

“What arms have been supplied to Israel? Which of these arms have been used to kill Palestinians? What legal advice has the government received? Is RAF Akrotiri being used as a route for weapons to be deployed in Gaza? What video footage does the government have of the war zone? What intelligence has been passed to Israel?” wrote Corbyn.

Corbyn, who remains a sitting MP, stressed that “Israel” has not fought alone but has relied on military, economic and political support from foreign governments, including Britain, which continued to supply arms to “Israel” even after Labor’s election victory in October 2023.

He revealed that the Labor Party issued arms export licenses to “Israel” between October and December 2023, a three-month period that saw more approvals than the Conservative party granted in three years from 2020 to 2023.

This occurred despite the government’s announcement of a partial suspension of arms transfers to “Israel” in September 2024.

Corbyn detailed Britain’s military support for “Israel’s” war on Gaza, including the use of British military bases in Cyprus to spy on Gaza, the provision of military intelligence, and the transfer of weapons to “Israel.”

Complicity in Genocide

Amid Britain’s silence and the International Criminal Court’s failure to enforce its November 2024 ruling to arrest Netanyahu or Israeli soldiers and officers for their criminal responsibility in war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza, another scandal has emerged involving British soldiers fighting in Gaza.

The Guardian revealed on April 7, 2025, that a group of British lawyers, led by prominent attorney Michael Mansfield, filed a complaint with the British police calling for the arrest and prosecution of ten British nationals accused of committing war crimes while fighting alongside the Israeli army in Gaza.

According to the indictment document against the British-Israeli soldiers, prepared by a team of British lawyers and researchers in The Hague, these soldiers took part in attacks on civilian and religious sites, including mosques and historic landmarks, and were involved in the forced displacement and dispossession of Palestinians.

On behalf of a group of lawyers, Michael Mansfield submitted a 240-page dossier to the war crimes unit at Scotland Yard detailing allegations of targeted killings of civilians and aid workers, including sniper fire, as well as indiscriminate attacks on civilian areas, including hospitals.

The identities of the suspected British-Israeli soldiers have not been disclosed for legal reasons, but The Guardian has confirmed that some are senior British officers.

On June 10, 2024, the investigative site Declassified compiled names and photos of 15 Britons who recently fought alongside Israeli Occupation Forces and partially identified ten others.

It noted that among at least 80 British nationals known to the Foreign Office to have joined the Israeli military, the ministry took no action to prevent their involvement or to prosecute them.

Michael Mansfield, the lawyer known for defending high-profile cases, called for the prosecution of British dual nationals involved in the Gaza genocide. 

“​If one of our nationals is committing ​an offence, we ought to be doing something about it​. Even if we can’t stop the government of foreign countries behaving badly, we can at least stop our nationals from behaving badly.”

“British nationals are under a legal obligation not to collude with crimes committed in Palestine. No one is above the law,” as reported in The Guardian.

Earlier, a British woman told the Jewish Chronicle on October 12, 2023, that her son had joined the Israeli military alongside between 50 and 80 other young religious Jews.

When it emerged that London had allowed British-Israeli mercenaries with dual nationality to take part in the Gaza war, David Hearst, editor of Middle East Eye, questioned on December 13, 2023, whether Britain would hold Israeli Britons accountable for breaking its laws by fighting in Gaza.

British newspapers report that young Jewish volunteers from abroad are allowed to join the Israeli forces under tourist status, receiving residency permits through “Israel’s” Mahal program, which is designed for volunteers coming from outside the country.

Mercenaries in the Israeli Occupation Forces reportedly earn twice the salary of regular Israeli recruits, thanks to government grants provided to these foreign volunteers.

Not Time-Barred

Due to Britain’s role in what amounts to complicity in the occupation’s crimes and the genocide of Gaza, The Guardian published a column by commentator Owen Jones on July 23, 2025, mocking British ministers’ bets that they will avoid justice for their alleged complicity in Gaza.

“Indeed, international law leaves no room for doubt. When the UK ratified the arms trade treaty in 2014, it accepted that it must not “authorize any transfer of conventional arms … if it has knowledge at the time of authorization … [that] would be used in the commission of genocide, crimes against humanity or war crimes,” Jones wrote.

“Lammy’s government supplies Israel with components crucial for the functioning of F-35 jets, whose bombs indiscriminately destroy civilian infrastructure and shred the bodies of little children.” 

According to Jones, “Lammy also knows, of course, that Britain is a founding member of the international criminal court, which last year issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and his former defense minister for war crimes and crimes against humanity.”

“When successfully defending the sale of F-35 components in the high court, the government offered its assessment that it had not seen any evidence of women and children being deliberately targeted in Gaza, and there was no serious risk of a genocide.” 

“This contradicts dozens of American doctors and nurses who served in Gaza, who last year testified they had received the bodies of Palestinian children shot in the head or chest by Israeli snipers. Israeli soldiers have confessed that they are deliberately targeting children.”

London’s support for “Israel” goes beyond military and political backing. It also extends to suppressing pro-Gaza activism, such as the UK Home Office’s ban on the group Palestine Action, followed by measures restricting the right to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly.

Palestine Action is the first direct action protest group to be banned under the UK’s terrorism legislation, placing it in the same category as ISIS, al-Qaeda and the far-right National Action group, according to British newspapers.