JERUSALEM: Israel’s defence minister on Monday criticised Britain’s decision to suspend some arms exports to Israel because of concerns they would be used in violation of international humanitarian law in Gaza.

“Deeply disheartened to learn of the sanctions placed by the UK government on export licenses to Israel’s defense establishment,” Yoav Gallant said on X.

The decision by London to suspend 30 out of 350 arms export licences to Israel, announced by Foreign Secretary David Lammy on Monday, “comes at a time when we fight a war on 7 different fronts” and “when we mourn 6 hostages who were executed in cold blood by Hamas inside tunnels in Gaza”, Gallant said.

UK says it is suspending 30 of its 350 arms export licences to Israel

Hamas’s October 7 attack which started the war resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.

Israel’s military campaign against Hamas has so far killed at least 40,786 people in Gaza, according to the territory’s health ministry. The UN rights office says most of the dead are women and children.

Israelis were gripped by grief and fury on Sunday after the military said the bodies of six hostages, all captured alive during the October 7 attack, were recovered from a tunnel in southern Gaza.

Israel’s Foreign Minister Israel Katz said Monday on X that Britain’s decision on arms exports “sends a very problematic message to the terrorist organization Hamas and its agents in Iran”.