British Foreign Secretary David Lammy today announced that the government would halt some arms sales to Israel.

Speaking to the House of Commons, Lammy said that government “have not and could not arbitrate on whether or not Israel has breached international humanitarian law”, but that it had a legal duty under the Strategic Export Licensing Criterion not to grant an arms export licence “if it determines there is a clear risk that the items might be used to commit or facilitate a serious violation of international humanitarian law”.

“It is with regret, that I inform the house today, the assessment I have received leaves me unable to conclude anything other than that for certain UK arms exports to Israel, there does exist a clear risk that they might be used to commit or facilitate a serious violation of international humanitarian law”, he said.

The Foreign Secretary confirmed that Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds would announce the suspension of “around 30 from a total of approximately 350 licences to Israel as required under the Exports Controls Act”.

These would include, he said “equipment that we assess is for use in the current conflict in Gaza such as important components that go into military aircraft, including fighter aircraft, helicopters and drones, as well as items that facilitate ground targeting”.

He added that “there is no equivalence between Hamas terrorists and Israel’s democratic government, or indeed Iran and their partners and proxies, but to license arms exports to Israel we must assess their compliance with international humanitarian law notwithstanding their opponents’ tactics or ideology.” And was keen to emphasise that “this is not an arms embargo and insisted that the government’s action would not “have a material impact on Israel’s security.”

He also confirmed that the F35 fighter jet programme was unaffected and told MPs: “The effects of suspending all licences for the F-35 programme would undermine the global F35 supply chain that is vital for the security of the UK, our allies, and Nato.”

He insisted: “The UK continues to support Israel’s right to self-defence in accordance with international law,” announcing “new sanctions on four IRGC-Quds Force targets who have a role in supporting Iranian proxy actions in Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon” and noted that previous Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrat ministers had previously chosen not to licence exports to Israel.

Responding for the Conservatives, Shadow Foreign Secretary Andrew Mitchell said that: “We will look carefully at the limited arms embargo memorandum that the Foreign Secretary has promised the House. While he rightly does not publish his legal advice, we are grateful that he is honouring the promise that I made to the Business and Trade Committee to publish as much as possible on this. He will, I know, and as he said, be careful not to indicate, in any way at all, any moral equivalence between Hamas and the democratically elected Government of Israel.”

Later on, he posted on social media: “Announcing an arms embargo on the day when Israel is burying its murdered hostages, and within weeks of British military personnel and arms defending Israel from Iranian attack, is not easy to swallow.

“Having now looked at Labour’s memorandum, it has all the appearance of something designed to satisfy Labour’s backbenches, while at the same time not offending Israel, an ally in the Middle East. I fear it will fail on both counts.”

Liberal Democrat Foreign Affairs spokesperson Layla Moran MP welcomed the government’s announcement but said: “This action should have been taken long ago by the previous government.”

She went on: “Liberal Democrat MPs will now carefully scrutinise the details of the Foreign Secretary’s announcement, including those export licences which the Government has not suspended. We are concerned that the decision is made solely on risk of use in Gaza and not the West Bank.

“Every day seems to bring new dreadful scenes from the region, and the UK must be doing everything that it can to ensure that an immediate bilateral ceasefire is secured – to put an end to the humanitarian devastation in Gaza, ensure the hostages are brought home, and open the door to a two-state solution."

The Democratic Unionist Party’s Sammy Wilson hit out at the government’s decision and said that the “only people who will be overjoyed by this decision are the Hamas terrorists who murdered six hostages in cold blood at the weekend. They have been handed the hope that this government will not stand firm in their defence of Israel’s right to defend itself.”