An Assessment of the Impact of Uk Arms Export in Israel-Hamas Conflict and the Complicit in War Crimes

This paper examines the recent conflict between Israel and Hamas that took place in Gaza and the conflict emerged from unprecedented destruction from the Hamas militant group in Palestine. Although the Hamas group portray themselves as freedom fighters, but western and developed countries have tagged it a terrorist group responsible for initiating the recent dispute in the Middle East, especially in the State of Israel. However, this paper analyses the United Kingdom’s possible involvement in the Israel-Hamas conflict and assesses how the country’s weaponry exports have affected the Israel-Hamas conflict. The paper therefore provided insights on arms exports by the British government and how this equipment has enabled acts that contravene international humanitarian law and how weapons such as drones, tanks and ammunitions have been utilized in military operations in Gaza. Furthermore, the paper shows the UK’s compliance with its duties to control arms exports and stop their use in war crimes and human right abuse. Using the military-industrial complex theory, the paper provides how the military and defense contractors benefit mutually from arms exportation and the aim is not to aid the nations in need of war tools to win the war rather what they stand to gain when arms are exported. In this study, secondary data was employed using textbook, published articles, newspapers and media outlet report. Drawing findings from the in-depth interview conducted, this paper revealed that the UK are not the major exporters or arms to Israel in its recent conflict with Palestine due to several factors which includes condemnation from the public and economic decline. This paper recommended that the UK should conduct a thorough risk assessment to ensure that arms exports to Israel will not be used to violate international humanitarian law and Israel and Palestine conflict could be addressed by border controls and international peacekeeping forces. This paper therefore concluded that the conflict is fueled by external factors including arms exportation and the UK must re-examine their arms export policies.