Zeynep ConkarWhen Belgian customs officials intercepted two shipments of British military components bound for Israel at Liege Airport last month, they blew the lid off a very well-known ‘secret’: the UK has continued to arm Israel for its genocidal war on Palestine.
The cargo, which had departed Britain on March 23, was scheduled for onward air transport to Tel Aviv on a Challenge Airlines service two days after its arrival, according to shipping documents reviewed by investigators.
The shipment included fire control systems and spare parts for military aircraft.
The seizure followed a tip-off to Belgian authorities by a coalition of civil society organisations, including investigative outlet Declassified UK, Belgian peace group Vredesactie, Irish publication The Ditch and the Palestinian Youth Movement, who had been tracking suspicious military logistics movements through the airport.
Walloon regional officials, who oversee arms licensing for Liege Airport, concluded that the shipment did not meet legal requirements, with one official confirming that no transit licence had been requested, and that if it had been, it would have been refused.
The seizure of the arms shipment, however, came as no surprise to activists who track British foreign policy.
From the Conservative government that assisted Israel through the first year of the genocide in Gaza, to the Labour government that replaced it, the UK supply line to Israel has never been cut, according to political strategist and human rights activist Ashish Prashar.
“Much like some other European governments, many have said they won’t provide ‘offensive weapons’ but will supply defensive ones. There’s no real difference when weapons are provided,” Prashar, a former advisor to the Middle East Peace Envoy, tells TRT World.
“That’s been the language British politicians have used with the public to deflect from the fact that they’re still supplying Israel with arms to kill Palestinians.”
Though Belgian authorities declined to reveal the exporting firms amid an open criminal investigation, the Walloon regional government named one company as Moog, an American aerospace firm with factories in Britain, which manufactures a crucial component for the M-346 aircraft used to train Israeli pilots.
A spokesperson for Vredesactie stated that there was information on 17 prior transits along the same route, describing it as "clearly a regular transit" from Liege to Israel.
Belgium, which has enacted a blanket prohibition on military-laden aircraft using its airports or airspace en route to Israel, is now reportedly pursuing legal action to ensure compliance.
Gap between policy and practice
The UK government has insisted it suspended licences for equipment that could be used in Gaza, while maintaining exceptions tied to multinational programmes such as the F-35 fighter jet.
But the Belgian seizure complicates that narrative. Between October 2023 and May 2024 alone, Britain issued over 100 export licences for military equipment to Israel, covering components for fighter jets, tanks and ammunition.
Evidence emerging from shipping data and prior investigations suggests that components linked to military aviation continue to move from Britain to Israel through layered supply chains.
In some cases, parts are classified in ways that allow them to pass under existing licences, even when they ultimately feed into military systems.
“What do we expect from a prime minister who, at the beginning of this genocide, justified the starvation, denial of electricity and water?” Prashar asks.
"Much like the US, the UK has proved duplicitous, the only difference is that Washington has never pretended otherwise. Britain, by contrast, has been carefully managing its image, both at home and abroad, showing concern for international law and civilian lives while the weapons kept moving."
“In this case, Israel is getting its weapons from the UK to kill and exterminate Palestinians, in what the UN now calls a genocide. Everyone responsible for that weapons transfer should be brought to justice, from the prime minister to the civil servants implicated in that transfer,” Prashar adds.
Evidence of regular transfers
The evidence of regular transfers is now a matter of documented record.
A May 2025 report by the Palestinian Youth Movement, Workers for a Free Palestine and Progressive International found that the UK shipped over 160,000 items classified under international customs codes for arms and ammunition to Israel in the 18 months from October 2023 through March 2025, with no observable decrease in aircraft component shipments after the September 2024 suspension announcement.
In fact, a statistically significant increase was recorded in the months that followed.
Some of this continued flow is traceable to a deliberate government decision: when London suspended its 30 licences, it explicitly carved out F-35 components, creating a loophole that allowed military hardware to reach Israel indirectly through other countries in the Global Spares Pool.
“The F-35 is one of the main tools used by Israel in the extermination of the Palestinian population. Components, parts and resupply keep the plane flying. If the plane doesn’t fly, it doesn’t kill people,” Prashar says.
“It’s no different to the Nazis who fixed the gas chambers. Saying it’s not the actual bomb or missile doesn’t change that the parts allow the F-35 to complete its mission, which is extermination.
“If you are providing the instruments for the weapon to fulfill that purpose, you are as guilty as those pressing the button,” he adds.
Nevertheless, the transfers do not stop with what the UK claims is its only exception.
UK export licensing figures show that Britain approved licences worth $172.5 million in military equipment to Israel in the single quarter of October to December 2024; more than the total for 2020 to 2023 combined, covering military radars, targeting equipment and related components, all granted after the suspension announcement.
And as recently as June 2025, a Channel 4-verified report found that military goods worth $540,704 from the UK passed through Israeli customs in a single month, the highest figure since records began.
The picture that emerges is of a government that has used the language of restraint to manage domestic and international opinion, while preserving, through loopholes and reclassification, the substance of an arms relationship with a genocidal state it publicly claims to have curtailed.
Now it’s on Belgium, who have the evidence to take those individuals to court, Prashar argues.
“It’s not enough for Belgium to stop the transfer of military equipment or seize shipments. They are, in essence, still in breach of the original ICJ order, which instructed everyone to do everything they can to prevent this genocide.”
“This is a breach of Belgium’s sovereignty too. It’s saying to Belgium, ‘Your law doesn’t matter. We’re going to transfer through you.’ It’s a direct disregard for other partners and neighbours in Europe,” he adds.
