"Quiet boycott"... Expectations that Britain will announce that it will stop arming Israel within days

Israel estimates that Britain will announce within the next few days a halt to arms exports to Tel Aviv, according to Israeli media on Monday.

The Israeli Ynet news website said that Israel estimates that the United Kingdom will announce within a few days the end of defense export licenses to Israel.

The website added that the British have been studying the issue of arms export licenses for a long time, but now with the change of government, the assessment in Israel is that the decision will be made.

In early July, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer formed a new government of Labor Party representatives and experts.

The website continued: “The United Kingdom is an important country when it comes to defense exports to Israel, and the fear in Tel Aviv is that this is the first measure and other countries will follow suit.”

He pointed out that the decision expected from the British falls within the "quiet" and less formal boycott by Western European countries in recent months, which have stopped or delayed shipments of raw materials and spare parts for Israeli Defense Industries, which manufactures weapons for the army.

The silent boycott, coming from manufacturers in countries such as France, is leading the Israeli army to search for alternatives in Eastern Europe, South America and Asia, according to the Ynet website.

New government decisions

The new British government began to reverse decisions taken by the previous government, as it announced last week the resumption of funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), after it was frozen following Israeli accusations against the agency.

On Friday, the government decided to withdraw its reservations regarding the request of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Karim Khan, to issue two arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Galant. On charges of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza Strip.

With absolute American support, Israel has been waging a devastating war on Gaza since October 7, which has left more than 130,000 Palestinians martyred and wounded, most of them children and women, and more than 10,000 missing.

To demand an end to the war on Gaza, Lebanese and Palestinian factions in Lebanon, most notably Hezbollah, have exchanged daily bombardments with the Israeli army across the dividing “Blue Line” since October 8, leaving hundreds dead and wounded, most of them on the Lebanese side.

Source: Israeli press + Anadolu Agency