UK Government in High Court over continued arms exports to Israel amid its starvation of Gaza
- Global Legal Action Network
- 5 days ago
- 3 min read
Al- Haq v Secretary of State for Business and Trade: this case challenges a government decision to continue the supply of essential parts for the F-35 fighter jets through a ‘carve-out’ loophole
The case aims to ensure the UK Government urgently suspends all arms exports to Israel – including the parts for the F-35 fighter jet that are still being sold via a deliberate loophole
Case argues UK can and must track and stop British made F-35 parts reaching Israel and that the government must ensure domestic laws are followed
Under both domestic and international law, the UK has a duty to stop the sale of weapons to any state committing violations of IHL and to prevent genocide.
On Tuesday 13th May GLAN and Al-Haq are in the High Court challenging the government’s decision to continue the supply of F-35 parts to Israel through the ‘F-35 Carve Out’ decision - a deliberate loophole - despite its own assessment that Israel is not committed to complying with international humanitarian law.
GLAN and Al-Haq argue that the government is breaking both domestic and international law through its decision to create an unprecedented ‘carve out’ of F-35 parts, allowing them to be supplied to Israel via the Global Spares Pool and F-35 partner countries, despite the ICJ finding that there is plausible risk of genocide being committed against Palestinians in Gaza. Exports continued even after the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on November 21, 2024, citing alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during Israel's military operations in Gaza since the October 7, 2023.
This week, it was reported that direct transfers are alleged to have continued unabated since UK announced its suspension of all arms transfers to Israel in September 2024.
In September 2024, in response to this challenge and under threat of injunction, the UK government suspended all export licenses going to Israel which were assessed as for use in Gaza1, halting weapons and parts it assessed could be used in Gaza in light of its own assessment that Israel is not committed to complying with international law. However, excluded from the suspension were parts for the F-35 fighter jet - through the ‘F35 carve out’. This decision created a loophole where F-35 parts could indirectly reach Israel through other countries that are part of the Global Spares Pool. Despite extensive evidence of Israel’s ongoing IHL violations submitted to the government, including evidence that genocide is being committed in Gaza, the Government maintains its exception for F-35 parts.
Essential components of the F-35 fighter jet, including the laser targeting system, are made in the UK. It is the world’s most lethal warplane, capable of dropping multi-ton bombs, it has been central to Israel’s bombardment campaign in Gaza.
From the IDF’s own press releases (Hebrew, geoblocked: https://www.iaf.org.il/9781-62307-he/IAF.aspx ), we know that the IDF, in cooperation with Lockheed Martin and the U.S., have specifically adapted their F-35s since October 2023 to carry up to 18,000 lbs each in munitions ‘where stealth is not needed’, for example in Gaza where there is no air defence. They call this modification ‘Beast Mode’.
These jets have been directly linked to attacks on so-called ‘safe zones’, including a notorious attack on Al-Mawasi in Khan Younis that killed 90 Palestinians. They were also visually identified [contact GLAN for details] by a journalist in Gaza as having been involved in the Israeli military assault on Gaza that breached the ceasefire on 18 March 2025, killing 436 Palestinians, including 183 children.
Shawan Jabarin, Al-Haq General Director: “The UK government remains utterly complicit in its ongoing arms sales to Israel, which, emboldened by impunity, has escalated its genocide against the Palestinian people through a manufactured famine, an announcement for the mass forcible transfer of Gaza's entire population, and plans to seize and annex Palestinian territory in Gaza. Israel's actions are not only an egregious breach of international law but also amount to genocide—and the UK’s complicity makes it also accountable.”
GLAN Lawyer, Charlotte Andrews-Briscoe: “The UK Government has expressly departed from its own domestic law in order to keep arming Israel. This decision is of continuing and catastrophic effect. British-made F-35s are dropping multi-ton bombs on the people of Gaza, which the UN Secretary General has described as a “killing field.” Israel’s F-35 pilots say that they are working “around the clock” and “non-stop.” F-35s are also used to assist Israel’s ground troops and are as such responsible for maintaining Israel’s ongoing two-month total blockade of Gaza, which is intentionally starving an already decimated population.”
GLAN’s Director, Gearóid Ó Cuinn: “In creating loopholes to keep Israel warplanes supplied the UK Government is not only fuelling atrocity crimes—it is running roughshod over UK law and sabotaging international law. Our message is clear: no loopholes or political calculation can justify complicity in the destruction of a people. This case is about restoring the rule of law and reminding those in power that their decisions carry legal and moral consequences.”