UK government reviewing £8bn of arms sales to Israel

Israel counted the international cost of its Gaza offensive yesterday with angry condemnation from France and a British decision to review military sales in light of the bloody month-long conflict.

President François Hollande called for action to end what he described as a “massacre” in the Palestinian territory, linking it to violence in Syria and Iraq.

Mr Hollande’s words were the harshest used by any EU leader about the current crisis, which has also seen the normally supportive US use strong language to condemn the killing of Palestinians.

On Sunday, the UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, condemned as “a moral outrage and a criminal act” an attack on a UN school in Rafah which killed 10 Palestinians.

Israel said it was targeting Islamic Jihad militants. Washington said it was appalled at the "disgraceful shelling".

Spain called for the strict respect of international humanitarian law while Russia called on Israel to agree to a humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza.

Prevent crimes

President Hassan Rouhani of Iran, a long-standing enemy of Israel and a supporter of Hamas, accused the international community of failing "to prevent the crimes against humanity of the Zionist regime".

The British government, meanwhile, said that it was reviewing the sale of £8 billion in arms and military goods to Israel to see whether each licence was appropriate in light of the conflict in Gaza.

Ministers said they would not stop licensing military equipment to Israel outright because they believed the country had a “legitimate right to self-defence”.

The contracts – mostly for cryptographic software and military communications, but also weapon parts – will be individually examined to ensure they are not being used for internal repression or the provocation of conflict.

The British government confirmed it was conducting the review after prime minister David Cameron made his strongest comments yet on the crisis, saying the UN was right to condemn the shelling of schools as a "moral outrage".

The prime minister, however, stopped short of Labour party leader Ed Miliband’s outright opposition to Israel’s incursion, and made it clear that the British government blamed Hamas for provoking the conflict.

Hermes drone

Campaigners are most worried about £42 million of arms export licences granted to 130 British companies, including two supplying components for the Hermes drone and one selling components for Israel’s main battle tank.

The information was uncovered by Campaign Against the Arms Trade, but the government said it had no plans to investigate whether British-made parts were being used in weapons or military equipment deployed in Gaza.

The Green party has called for an outright arms embargo on Israel, saying the sale of military parts was “nothing short of scandalous”. Caroline Lucas, the Green MP for Brighton, on England’s southern coast, said: “There must be an immediate embargo on all arms sales and military co-operation with Israel.”

Andrew George, a Liberal Democrat MP, called for a Royal Navy hospital ship moored in Falmouth to be sent to Gaza to ease pressure on the territory’s medical facilities.

- (Guardian service)