Overview

• More than 300 actors, musicians and activists—including Dua Lipa, Gary Lineker and Benedict Cumberbatch—signed an open letter calling on Prime Minister Keir Starmer to halt all UK arms exports to Israel.
• The letter, organised by refugee charity Choose Love, demands the government broker a permanent Gaza ceasefire and guarantee unfettered delivery of food, medicine and other aid.
• Starmer has already suspended around 30 military export licences for items deemed high-risk but declined to ban spare parts for F-35 jets due to the UK’s role in an international defence supply network.
• Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry reports over 54,000 civilian deaths and warns of widespread hunger after an 11-week blockade was only partly lifted last week.
• The celebrity letter follows a separate appeal from more than 800 UK-based legal experts warning that genocide may be taking place in Gaza, increasing pressure on government policy.