intercepted and confiscated at Liege airport in Belgium, Middle East Eye reported, following an alert from an international coalition comprising the British news outlet Declassified, the Belgian NGO WordSociety, the Irish website The Ditch, and the Palestinian Youth Movement.
These groups had warned Brussels authorities about the transfer of a suspicious military shipment from England to Israel via Liege Airport.
According to the documents obtained, the shipments left the UK on March 23, 2026, and were seized in Belgium the following day. Inspection by a specialist engineer revealed that the contents of the packages were “fire control systems and spare parts for military aircraft” that had not been correctly declared on the customs declaration.
The investigation also revealed that these weapons are of a type classified under export licenses coded ML5 and ML10, which are directly related to the UK’s export of military equipment related to combat aviation and fire control equipment.
Although Belgian authorities have declined to name the companies involved due to a judicial investigation, the government of the Walloon region in southern Belgium has named US aerospace company Moog as one of the main shippers of the shipments. The US aerospace company has factories in the UK and the parts were shipped from its Wolverhampton plant.
Moog is a manufacturer of parts for the M-346 trainer jets, which Israeli pilots use to train on the advanced F-35 and F-16 fighter jets. Investigations show that the company has sent at least 17 similar shipments to Israel via this route in the past.
The leak also details how the shipments were handled, noting that shipping companies apparently combined military goods with civilian goods (such as game consoles and medical equipment) in one shipment to make it difficult for customs to track them. The items were also registered with customs codes typically associated with civilian goods, not military equipment.
A Walloon government spokesman said: “In our opinion, these goods definitely require a transit permit. We have contacted our lawyers and we want to take all necessary steps to enforce the law.” He also stressed that no request for a transit permit has been issued for this shipment so far and that if one had been requested, it would definitely have been rejected.
The scandal comes as the London government claimed in September 2024 that it had suspended 30 arms export licenses to Israel due to the risk of violating international law in Gaza. However, new findings show that the country continues to keep alternative routes open for sending military equipment to Israel. https://www.iran-tribune.com/n/w/185