This week the UK has suspended some arms sales to Israel, saying there is a “clear risk” the equipment could be used to commit serious violations of international law. Foreign Secretary David Lammy said the UK would be suspending 30 out of 350 arms export licences to Israel, affecting equipment such as parts for fighter jets, helicopters and drones.

The Foreign Secretary comment on the decision saying: “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 they might be used to commit or facilitate a serious violation on international humanitarian law.”

Sacha Deshmukh of Amnesty International UK criticised the restrictions as “too limited and riddled with loopholes”. “Today’s decision means that while ministers apparently accept that Israel may be committing war crimes in Gaza, [the government] is nevertheless continuing to risk complicity in war crimes, apartheid - and possible genocide - by Israeli forces in Gaza,” he continued.

The significant loophole is that the decision almost entirely excludes all UK components for the F-35 fighter jet programme. It is also extremely concerning that Lammy told the House of Commons that the suspension decision was based primarily on evidence concerning the treatment of Palestinian prisoners and restrictions on the supply of humanitarian aid to Gaza. This means that the UK government is viewing the main conduct of Israel’s genocidal war – which has killed over 40,000 people – to be not in violation of international law.

While it is a welcome step that the UK government has decided to halt 10 percent of arms sales to Israel, this is more of a symbolic decision than actually taking a position of refusal to be complicit in the ongoing genocide. The Palestinian Return Centre continues to call on the UK government to impose arms embargo on Israel until its ends it genocidal campaign and settler colonisation of the Palestinian people.