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UK checking foreign arms used in Israeli massacres

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

London, Mar 25, IRNA - The British government is carrying out its own investigations into what foreign arms were supplied and used during Israel’s latest massacre of more than 1,300 Palestinians in Gaza, Foreign Office Minister Lord Malloch-Brown has revealed.

“When that process is complete we will make the information available to Parliament,” Malloch-Brown said in a written reply to MPs published Wednesday. He said that the assessment was based on a “variety of sources” but was no more specific.

His disclosure comes after Middle East Minister Bill Rammell told the Foreign Affairs Committee earlier this month that it has not been clear what equipment was used by the Israeli Defence Forces in Gaza.

Over recent years, the British government has licensed arms exports to Israel worth between £10 million and £25 million annually, which peace groups say breaches the UK’s own guidelines not to sell military equipment that risks being used for external aggression or internal repression.

According to the Campaign Against the Arms Trade, licences approved last year included components for combat aircraft, for electronic warfare equipment, for naval radars, for surface-to-air missiles, weapons sight equipment, general naval vessel components and military communications.

Other supplies have included Head-Up Displays for US F-16 fighter aircraft and Apache combat helicopters, which reportedly have been used by Israel in the past to bomb both Lebanese and Palestinian towns and villages.

British MPs have been calling for a full account of arms exports to Israel amid concern that engines for drone aircraft are made in the UK that were used to target Palestinian civilians and demolish thousands of homes and Gaza’s infrastructure.

Last month, Amnesty International arms controls campaigner Oliver Sprague criticized the British government for not revealing whether it has physically checked if British-made engines have been ending up in Israeli drones.

“In cases like these if the government doesn't proactively check on where UK equipment ends up it will never be able to guarantee that arms sales won't end up fuelling human rights violations,” Sprague warned.

There have also been reports that new US Dime bombs were supplied through the UK to Israel last year that caused previously unknown and horrific injuries to Palestinian civilians.