Israeli soldiers prepare ammunition at a staging area near Gaza

John McEvoy – Declassified UK – June

Published in partnership with Irish investigative news site The Ditch

A British company has sent over 1,000 munitions containers to Israel amid the Gaza genocide, raising concerns about UK arms export controls.

The information is contained within shipping documents reviewed exclusively by Declassified and The Ditch.

The documents show how Permoid Industries, an engineering firm in Durham, has sent 16 shipments of “storage containers” weighing over 100 tonnes to Elbit Systems in Israel since October 2023.

Permoid declined to comment but did not deny that the cases were designed to carry weapons. Its website says the firm produces “a wide range of ammunition containers”, which are suited for “belted ammunition, cartridge, mortar and shell munitions” including 155mm artillery shells.

Most of the shipments were sent to Elbit Systems Land in Ramat Hasharon near Tel Aviv, which produces a range of armaments for the IDF such as 155mm and 122mm mortar shells.

Elbit Systems supplies up to 85 percent of the Israel Defence Forces’ (IDF) land-based military equipment and drones.

The revelation raises the prospect that Permoid’s containers are being used to facilitate war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza, pointing to more serious loopholes in Britain’s arms export regulations.

Declassified has previously revealed that drone engines and tripods for mounting weapons have been exempted from UK trade sanctions on Israel.

Former British soldier Joe Glenton, who works for campaign group ForcesWatch, told Declassified: “In recent weeks we’ve seen a major turn in the language used by the Labour government over Israel’s assault on Gaza. The hard fact, however, remains that British firms are still provisioning a genocide.

“Ultimately the rhetorical shift means absolutely nothing unless it is matched with an immediate and total ban on arms sales to Israel accompanied by a withering regime of sanctions”.

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