As Israel kills 183 children in Gaza, the UK’s complicity has been exposed yet again

Israel has unilaterally ended the Gaza ceasefire, killing hundreds of people in the process – including at least 183 children. War criminal prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the apartheid state has “resumed combat in full force” in the occupied Palestinian territory and that “this is just the beginning”. Meanwhile, two separate reports have shown how the UK has been protecting Israel’s genocidal interests.

One new report reveals how Britain has supported recent attacks on Yemen in response to the anti-genocide resistance of Houthi rebels.

Another report shows how Britain has been allowing Israeli arms company Elbit to spy on protesters. The firm has also met with the British government, which is holding a number of political prisoners in connection to Palestine Action‘s efforts to disrupt Elbit’s activities in Britain.

1) UK support for bombing Yemen amid anti-genocide resistance

In December 2023, as the world witnessed Israel’s war crimes in Gaza, Declassified UK journalist Iona Craig reported that the Houthis had become “the most audacious Arab ally for Palestinians”. A month earlier, they had started efforts to disrupt “all ships in the Red Sea bound for Israeli ports, regardless of their nationality”, in solidarity with Palestine. Then, in January 2024, Israel’s enablers in the US and British governments responded by launching attacks on Yemen. The two Anglo-colonial powers had previously supported ally Saudi Arabia’s devastating war against the Houthis, which began in 2015. However, the attacks in defence of Israel’s genocide marked “the first time” they’d officially entered the conflict in Yemen (unofficially is a different matter).

Now, as US president Donald Trump steps up attacks on Yemen on behalf of Israel, Craig has revealed how Britain is helping out too. She explained how the UK “provided aerial refuelling for US jets during Yemen airstrikes”, via the now notorious genocide-enabling base of RAF Akrotiri. She said “the RAF did not announce its involvement” in Trump’s “multiple waves of air raids across Yemen” starting on 15 March, but “publicly available flight tracking data” showed that:

A Royal Air Force (RAF) Voyager aerial refuelling tanker carried out two flights from Akrotiri airbase in Cyprus into the northern Red Sea to support the USS Harry S. Truman.

A defence source told Declassified that:

the UK provided routine allied air-to-air refuelling support to aid the self defence of a US aircraft carrier in the region from which the strikes were launched.

The US attacks killed at least 53 people, including five children. In all the months since the Houthis’ anti-genocide resistance began in 2023, they have “targeted dozens of merchant vessels… sunk two vessels, seized a third, and killed four crew members”.

2) UK government in service of Israel arms company

Regarding the British government’s support for Israeli arms company Elbit, Declassified‘s John McEvoy reported that, in December 2024:

Keir Starmer’s government held a private meeting with Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest weapons company

In the meeting were:

three representatives from Elbit Systems and three officials from Yvette Cooper’s Home Office.

Declassified got access to this information via a Freedom of Information (FOI) request. The Home Office:

said that a recording of the meeting was made “but by mutual agreement [with Elbit] this was agreed… not to be released” through FOI.

This was not the first time the Home Office had worked closely with Elbit, however. Because one police report from 2023 showed how:

the Home Office was apparently instructing the police to prioritise the company and remand activists rather than facilitate freedom of assembly and expression, liberties enshrined in the Human Rights Act.

Just as worryingly, McEvoy explained:

Elbit Systems UK has “its own intelligence cell and share[s] information with the Police across the country on a two weekly basis”, a police file observes.

Meanwhile, Israel chooses war over peace (yet again)

This year’s ceasefire in occupied Gaza saw a brief pause in the horrors people there faced. It also saw both Israel and Hamas release numerous hostages, something that over a year of genocide had not achieved. Israeli occupation forces, however, violated the ceasefire on a number of occasions. And when its attempts to change the ceasefire deal in its favour failed, it resumed its genocidal assault on Gaza.

According to the BBC, Netanyahu has insisted that “all ceasefire talks will take place “under fire”” from now on. Families of hostages still in Gaza, however, have criticised the Israeli government’s decision to torpedo the ceasefire.

Featured image via the Canary