UK-made munitions containers have been shipped to Israel’s largest arms firm amid the Gaza genocide

OPINION – Gaza, arms to Israel


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”.

Elbit

Elbit’s factory in Ramat Hasharon is involved in the “design and manufacture of land-based systems and products for armored and other military vehicles, artillery and mortar systems”.

The company has been one of the key suppliers of mortars for Israeli forces engaged in ground operations in Gaza over the past 20 months.

Last year, Elbit’s Ramat Hasharon site was granted an exemption from heavy fines by the Israel Lands Authority so that it could continue to produce artillery shells for the IDF.

“The defence establishment views the continuation of Elbit’s production activity in Ramat Hasharon… as a means to accelerate the IDF’s armament process” in light of “the ongoing war and the need to replenish its stocks”, the Israeli media reported.

The IDF has tested and deployed several mortar systems in Gaza since October 2023 including the Elbit-made Iron Sting system, which boasts a range of 1-12km.

Permoid’s 1,080 containers

The shipping documents show how Permoid Industries has supplied at least 920 ammunition containers to Elbit’s Ramat Hasharon factory between October 2023 and April 2025.

360 of those items were sent in April 2025, as Israel escalated its siege, war of starvation, and military offensive in Gaza.

A further 160 cases were sent to Elbit’s Advanced Technology Centre in Haifa in December 2023, two months after the Gaza bombing began.

They were transported on cargo ships to the port of Ashdod, Israel, often using controversial Israeli shipping company Zim.

Declassified has estimated that the combined weight of these shipments is over 135 tonnes, which is the equivalent of 67 cars.

Britain’s department for business and trade told Declassified: “We have a robust licensing regime in place for exports of controlled goods and have suspended all licences for items to the IDF that might be used in military operations in Gaza.

“This is based on our assessment that these could be used to commit or facilitate serious violations of International Humanitarian Law, subject to the specific measures taken for the global F-35 programme”.

Hellfire missiles

Permoid makes no mention of its relationship with the Israeli arms industry on its website.

However, the company says it has worked alongside Lockheed Martin and Engineered Plastic Designs “in support of the Hellfire and Longbow missile containers”.

Hellfire and Longbow are US-manufactured air-to-ground missiles which can be deployed from Apache helicopters used by the Israeli Air Force.

Last year, Israeli troops reportedly dropped Hellfire missiles on a school in Nuseirat, Gaza, killing 22 civilians.

“We are pulling a hand here and a leg there from under the rubble. Civilians who did nothing wrong”, said a witness. Earlier this year, the US government announced that it would donate a further US$660m in Hellfire missiles to Israel, amounting to some 3,000 projectiles.

Source: Declassified UK

11 Jun 2025 by John McEvoy