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Britain stood exposed yesterday for sealing a multimillion-pound deal with an Israeli firm whose drones have killed hundreds of Palestinians in "field tests" of the technology.
Development charity War on Want urged the government and EU to slap a total arms trade ban on the Middle Eastern state after releasing a harrowing report into the wave of deaths in Gaza at the hands of Elbit's Hermes 450 drones.
Over 800 Palestinians have been killed since 2006 in drone strikes. Baby Haneen Tafesh was among the helpless victims of the weapons.
She was killed after a drone missile strike on her family's tin-roofed house in al-Zeitoun during a 2012 Israeli assault on Gaza.
Twelve-year-old Mamoun Aldam was killed in a separate attack minutes after making a fearful phone call to his mother about Israeli drones in the skies above.
Prime Minister David Cameron has vowed to plough money into buying more unmanned devices following their heavy use by the United States and Britain in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Britain's new Watchkeeper drone is currently being produced by U-TacS - a joint venture between Elbit Systems and French-owned Thales UK.
The devices are based on Elbit's Hermes 450 and tens of millions of taxpayers' cash is being ploughed into their development.
Britain has already spent £70 million on the older Hermes model, while the European Union has ploughed millions into joint military research projects with Israeli firms.
But other countries have introduced sanctions.
Norwegian and Swedish pension funds have refused to invest in Elbit shares, and Germany's Deutsche Bank and Danish counterpart Danske Bank have also excluded it from their investments.
War on Want senior campaigns officer Rafeef Ziadah said: "By supporting the arms trade with Israeli companies, the British government is sending a clear message of approval for Israel's aggression against the Palestinian people.
"The European Union is sending a similar message through its research funding for Israeli arms companies.
"It is high time both the UK and the EU ended their support for Israel's violations of international law."
