ANTI-ARMS campaigners slammed the government’s decision to “continue enabling” genocide today as it granted new export licences for military equipment headed for Israel.

The Department for Business and Trade green-lit two new licences for military “targeting equipment” despite concerns of potential “auto-diversion.”

The Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) surveyed British export licensing statistics for last year’s final quarter, revealing £20.5 million in licences being issued for exports to Israel.

It said £11m of the total was for incorporation, with £9.5m being standard, meaning they are not to be re-exported.

Researchers highlighted that the DBT issued a concerning Open Individual Export License (OIEL) for military “components and technology for targeting equipment,” to the value of £8.7m.

CAAT argued this defies the government’s September 2024 suspension of such licences for fear of use in Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

The DBT has claimed the licence “covers items for re-export from Israel, and the government of Israel is not an end-user or ultimate end-user. This is consistent with our suspension…”

But CAAT research co-ordinator Sam Perlo-Freeman warned these weapons “could easily be used in Gaza.

“Given Israel’s history of weapons diversion and illicit transfers, and outstanding questions about Elbit drone components failing to arrive in Romania, there remains a grave risk that Israel will auto-divert the targeting equipment to the IDF for use in Palestine.

“The DBT is relying on end-user undertakings that hold no legal force in Israel, which the government does not check up on and cannot enforce.

“The exporter is technically in the clear, so long as it can’t be shown they knew the end-user undertaking was false.”

He added that new export licences “show just how willing the UK is to continue enabling Israel’s genocidal assaults, while staying within the technical rule of a vastly insufficient and ineffective policy towards IDF war crimes.

“The licence for transfer of M-346 trainer aircraft components and technology shows DBT don’t care whether they’re contributing to war crimes, by enabling the use of fighter jets that cause unprecedented suffering across the Middle East.

“They’re simply doing the absolute bare minimum to keep to the terms of government policy, which itself was the absolute bare minimum they could get away with.”

A government spokesperson said: “We have suspended or refused export licences where it is assessed the items might be used in military operations in Gaza, as set out to Parliament.

“This has included relevant targeting equipment, components for drones, and components for combat aircraft.”