Mother of ex-Royal Marine aid worker killed by Israel in Gaza calls for end to UK arms sales

The mother of James “Jim” Henderson, one of three British aid workers killed when Israeli drone strikes hit a World Central Kitchen (WCK) convoy in Gaza in April 2024, has called on the UK government to stop selling arms to Israel and cut ties with it altogether.

“Stop selling arms to Israel. Stop engaging with Israel,” Trish Henderson told the Mirror ahead of a pre-inquest review into her son’s death at Avon Coroner’s Court in Bristol today. “We are forever watching and finding out what’s going on in Gaza, and it’s just awful.”

Exonerating murder: The IDF and the World Central Kitchen killings

Henderson, a 33-year-old former Royal Marine from Falmouth in Cornwall, was providing security for the convoy when it was hit on 1 April 2024, shortly after the team had unloaded more than 100 tonnes of food aid at a warehouse in Deir Al-Balah.

The strikes killed seven aid workers: Henderson, fellow Britons John Chapman, 57, and James Kirby, 47, Palestinian Saif Abu Taha, Australian Zomi Frankcom, Polish national Damian Soból and US-Canadian dual national Jacob Flickinger. The vehicles carried the charity’s logo, and WCK said it had coordinated the convoy’s movements with the Israeli army.

“Humanitarian workers should not be targeted,” Trish said. “But we all know what’s going on in Gaza.”

Israel called the attack a “grave mistake” at the time, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said such things happen in war. The army dismissed two officers and reprimanded three others.

On 19 August this year, however, it announced it would not open a criminal investigation, claiming the commanders’ decisions did not raise “reasonable suspicion of criminal misconduct”.

WCK rejected the army’s account, saying the Israeli military knew its team was unarmed, and called for an independent investigation. The charity’s founder, José Andrés, has long maintained that the convoy was deliberately targeted.

Read: Germany faults Israel over closed probe into World Central Kitchen strike

Britain, Australia and Canada called the decision “shameful” in a joint statement, adding that announcing it on World Humanitarian Day was “particularly egregious”. Middle East Minister Stephen Doughty said he was “appalled and angry for the families”, adding: “This is not good enough.”

Trish said the decision did not surprise the family. “Hopefully justice will be served by them or from us,” she said. “It’s just a waiting game, really. A long waiting game.”

Henderson’s father, Neil, said the family wants the coroner to examine “the decisions and policies leading to the attack, and what role, if any, UK authorities or military equipment originating from the UK may have played”. The Ministry of Defence has refused to release RAF surveillance footage of Gaza from the day of the strike, citing security reasons.

Britain suspended around 30 of its 350 arms export licences to Israel in September 2024 but kept a carve-out for F-35 fighter jet components supplied through a global parts pool.

Earlier this month, Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband announced that the government would refuse all licences for exports that “materially contribute” to the occupation, calling the move “a double lock against arms sales”.

The F-35 carve-out remains in place, however, and Prime Minister Andy Burnham has shown no sign of imposing a full arms embargo, despite legal experts warning that the carve-out breaches Britain’s obligations under the Genocide Convention.

The WCK killings remain one of the most widely condemned attacks on aid workers during Israel’s genocide in Gaza. Henderson’s family is now raising money to walk the Great Wall of China in support of the Henderson Academy, a boxing club in Penryn named in his honour.