John McEvoy
Declassified UK / September 4, 2024
Exclusive: Over 50 tons of munitions have been flown to Israel over Britain since Gaza bombing began.
Arms for Israel have been quietly shipped through British airspace amid the genocidal war in Gaza, Declassified can reveal.
Items sent on the Israel-bound planes have included sniper ammunition, explosives for use in military aircraft, and detonators. The total weight of the cargo amounts to over 55 tons.
All of the eight flights identified by Declassified departed from JFK International Airport in New York, entering Britain’s sovereign airspace over Wales and exiting it over Dover.
The flights then passed through Liège, Belgium, before reaching their final destination in Tel Aviv. They were all operated by the Challenge Airlines group, which has a base in Israel.
Flights carrying dangerous goods or munitions of war through British airspace typically require special clearance from the Civil Aviation Authority.
This indicates that the UK government has greenlit the passage of numerous arms shipments to Israel since the Gaza bombing began.
Reacting to our revelation, Sam Perlo-Freeman of Campaign Against Arms Trade commented: “Ministers have made Israel’s war crimes their own by allowing Israel to fly its loads of lethal equipment through UK airspace”.
The new information comes days after Britain’s foreign secretary David Lammy finally acknowledged there was a “clear risk” that Israel might use imported weaponry to “commit or facilitate a serious violation of International Humanitarian Law.”
The International Criminal Court (ICC) is considering arrest warrants for Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and defence minister Yoav Gallant.
Information about the cargo flights was first obtained by Belgian NGO Vredesactie (Peace Action) via Freedom of Information legislation.
Irish news website The Ditch subsequently revealed how the flights had passed through Ireland’s airspace without legal authorization, provoking an ongoing diplomatic incident.
The Civil Aviation Authority was asked whether it had granted requests for munitions of war to pass through British airspace to Israel. It had not responded at the time of publication.
Weapons flights
The eight arms shipments to Israel which passed through British airspace took place between October 2023 and March 2024.
The first flight, on 29 October 2023, was carrying 167kg of detonators for Orion Advanced Systems, a major contractor for the Israel Defence Forces (IDF).
According to Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT), “Orion is the sole supplier of fuses to the Israeli Air Force”.
Some 42 pressure cartridges containing explosives were also onboard, destined for the state-owned firm Israel Aerospace Industries.
A second flight departed the US on 24 November 2023, delivering over 1,500 rounds of “super-sock” bullet-like ammunition for the Israeli national police.
These rounds have been used by the Israeli security forces for “riot control” operations against Palestinians since at least 2005.
The ammunition is advertised as “less-lethal” and is ostensibly designed to “momentarily incapacitate violent non-compliant subjects”.
However, the supplier warns that “shots to the head, neck, thorax, heart or spine can result in fatal or serious injury”.
The November flight also carried another 42 pressure cartridges for Israel Aerospace Industries.
Sniper ammunition
Four more arms shipments were transported to Israel through British airspace in February this year.
The cargo included 13kg of .338 Lapua Magnum ammunition rounds for delivery to IMI Systems, an Israeli weapons manufacturer which supplies the IDF.
The Lapua Magnum rounds are used in the Israeli IWI Dan bolt-action sniper rifle which was jointly designed by the IDF and has a firing range of around 1200 metres.
Israeli snipers have been deployed throughout the military campaign in Gaza, regularly killing civilians including children and medical staff.
One doctor in Gaza told reporters in April: “I saw even small children with direct sniper shot wounds to the head as well as in the chest. They were not combatants, they were small children”.
The February flights also delivered “detonating fuses” to the Israeli government which are “commonly used to detonate aerial bombs or artillery munitions including those used by the IDF in Gaza”, The Ditch reported.
Other items dispatched in February included tear gas cartridges and igniters bound for the “Government of Israel”.
The tear gas sent to Israel on 1 February had been directly funded by the US government.
“The Contractor (CSI) acknowledges U.S. Government funds are being used by the Government of Israel to finance this purchase”, the invoice noted.
The most recent flight, which travelled through British airspace on 19 March, was carrying over 700kg of detonators, igniters, and small arms cartridges.
It is unclear whether arms shipments to Israel have continued to pass through British airspace since March.
Belgian authorities moved to ban all forms of arms transit to Israel in May. However, it is possible that weapons shipments are flying over Britain via other routes.
Israeli planes in Britain
This is not the first time that controversy has arisen over Israeli arms passing through British sovereign territory.
During the Israel-Lebanon war in 2006, two US-chartered planes carrying bombs for Israel landed in Prestwick airport in Scotland without the UK government’s knowledge.
More recently, Declassified revealed that Israeli military planes have landed at four locations in Britain, including Prestwick airport, since 7 October 2023.
The Ministry of Defence has repeatedly refused to give any details about the Israeli military flights in the UK, raising concerns that they too are carrying arms to Tel Aviv.
There is also a precedent for the UK refusing use of its sovereign territory for purposes of arms transit.
During the October 1973 Arab-Israeli war, Conservative prime minister Edward Heath prevented US aircraft taking arms to Israel from landing in Britain.
Lawyer Sam Fowles recently argued that British “logistical” assistance to Israel could render the UK government complicit in international crimes including “genocide, aggression, and torture”.
CAAT’s Perlo-Freeman agreed, adding: “The UK government finally admitted that Israel is failing to comply with international law in its war in Gaza, something that should have been obvious from the beginning.
“Yet it is choosing to remain complicit in this genocidal war; by allowing supplies of critical F-35 components to Israel to continue, and making up new rules as it goes along to allow this, as well as intelligence cooperation and all the other forms of assistance Declassified has revealed since the war began”.
John McEvoy is an independent journalist
