BICOM

What’s happened: Foreign Secretary Cameron yesterday confirmed that the UK would not suspend arms sales to Israel.

• Speaking at a joint press conference with US counterpart Anthony Blinken, Cameron reinforced that “Israel remains a vital defence and security partner to the UK. Our cooperation makes the UK and Israel more secure from external threats.”
• “The latest assessment,” he said, referring to advice from government lawyers as to the international legality of continuing to supply weapons, “leaves our position on export licences unchanged. This is consistent with the advice that I and other ministers have received, and as ever we will keep the position under review.”
• Cameron also said that “we continue to have grave concerns around the humanitarian access issue in Gaza… We’ve seen a welcome increase in trucks… the highest since Oct 7, and of course public commitments from Israel to flood Gaza with aid. These now need to be turned into reality.”
• Cameron discussed both issues with Foreign Minister Katz yesterday, conveying to his Israeli counterpart the UK’s wish to see expanding the operating hours of the Kerem Shalom crossing, increasing the number of aid trucks entering Gaza daily to 500, providing protective equipment for humanitarian workers, opening the Erez crossing, establishing a humanitarian corridor from Jordan that can transport 100 trucks a day, and a de-escalation mechanism to ensure the safety of humanitarian aid workers.
• Cameron also reiterated the UK’s request that the Red Cross or British diplomats be allowed to visit detained Hamas Nukhba terrorist suspects and that Israel explain its strategy for distinguishing civilians from terrorists.
• A UK Foreign Office paper published this week, meanwhile, called for “an immediate pause to get aid in and hostages out of Gaza, then progress towards a sustainable, permanent ceasefire, without a return to destruction, fighting and loss of life.”
• At the UN General Assembly on Monday, the UK’s Ambassador to the UN Barbara Woodward reiterated that the UK has trebled its financial commitment to Palestinian aid this financial year, and welcoming the Israeli decision to open the Erez Crossing and the Port of Ashdod to ease the flow of aid.
• Woodward also affirmed the UK’s view on the “need to focus on the vital elements for a lasting peace. These include the release of all hostages; the formation of a new Palestinian Government for the West Bank and Gaza accompanied by an international support package; removing Hamas’s capacity to launch attacks against Israel; Hamas no longer being in charge of Gaza; and a political horizon which provides a credible and irreversible pathway towards a two-state solution.”

Context: Following threats from Cameron and from some political quarters in the US to suspend military sales or to make them conditional, Israel’s position remains that such threats send a dangerous signal to Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran, as to the willingness of Israel’s allies to support the country at a time of multi-front existential war.

• The escalating concerns of Israel’s western allies over the conduct of the war in Gaza, particularly over the question of humanitarian aid and rising precipitously following the deaths of the World Central Kitchen workers, has brought the question into sharp focus in recent weeks.
• In an article in the most recent edition of the Sunday Times, Cameron reaffirmed Israel’s right to self-defence. “Israel cannot be expected,” he wrote, “to live next to an organisation that carried out such brutal attacks and has declared that, if possible, it would do the same all over again.”
• Alongside his calls for further aid, Cameron demanded “the immediate release of all hostages. That innocent people have been captured and held is a perpetual reminder of the monstrous organisation we are dealing with.”
• Cameron’s Labour opposition counterpart David Lammy criticised the foreign secretary’s decision not to publish the government’s legal advice in full, accusing him of “hiding from scrutiny”.
• In December 2023, less than three months into the war in Gaza, Cameron announced that he was “satisfied that there was good evidence to support a judgment that Israel is committed to comply[ing] with International Humanitarian Law” and decided to recommend not to suspend or revoke weapons export licences but to keep them under careful review.
• He then first mooted suspending arms sales to Israel on March 21^st, connecting the issue, rather surprisingly, with Red Cross access to Nukhba suspects.
• His comments were attacked by his former colleague and fellow previous UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
• UK arms imports represent a very small fraction of Israel’s total imported arms – less than 1 percent – and an even smaller proportion of Israel’s overall weapons arsenal.
• Although the UK’s export licensing system makes overall figures difficult to quantify, data from the Campaign Against Arms Trade suggests that the UK exports nearly 25 times the value of arms to Saudi Arabia as it does to Israel.
• In parallel, Israel is the UK’s third largest supplier of arms, and imported Israeli arms have protected UK service personnel in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and in other combat deployments.
• The opening of the Erez Crossing and the Port of Ashdod have led to significant increases in the amount of aid entering the Gaza Strip.
• According to COGAT, 468 aid trucks entered Gaza yesterday, the highest total since the beginning of the war. This follows 419 on Monday and 322 on Sunday.

Looking ahead: Israel continues to await a Hamas response to the latest US proposal on a hostage release deal.

• Any temporary ceasefire should be able to facilitate further increases in aid delivered to Gaza.