This Declassified Australia investigation is published in partnership with investigative news site, The Ditch.
Parts for Israel’s F-35 fighter jets are being exported directly to Israel from Australia, despite repeated government denials of the trade. These exports represent clear evidence of Australia’s complicity in Israeli war crimes.
Declassified Australia has sighted shipping records detailing goods sent on two recent flights from Sydney to Tel Aviv in Israel. It’s uncertain whether these documents show just two individual shipments, or are a glimpse of a much bigger Australian direct trade of F-35 parts to Israel.
Last Friday, 4 July, goods labelled as “Aircraft parts” were loaded into the cargo hold of Thai Airways flight TG472 at Sydney’s International Airport. The flight departed at 2.50pm heading firstly to Bangkok to link with a connecting flight, Israeli El Al airline flight LY82, the ultimate destination being Tel Aviv, where it arrived last Sunday, 6 July.
The aircraft parts were described as “Packing” and are marked “EAR99”. This reference to EAR99 is to the US Export Administration Regulation 99 which applies to goods that are dual-use military/commercial goods. The package was recorded as weighing 1 kg.
The documents state the source of the aircraft parts as being Lockheed Martin, the manufacturer of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. Lockheed Martin retains ownership of parts and components of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, and manages the global supply chain and is responsible for all allocation of those components. The goods description records the parts as being for the “JSF”, referring to the Joint Strike Fighter.
The shipping records state the supplier of the goods as “RAAF”, the Royal Australian Air Force. The documents go on to list the sender’s location as “Tindal”, the pick-up location as “Williamtown”, and after being sent off from Sydney Airport, the location of the receiver of the goods is simply “Tel Aviv-Jaffa, Israel”.
RAAF Base Tindal near Katherine in the Northern Territory is the major RAAF airbase in northern Australia, and is home to No. 75 Squadron that operates F-35A joint strike fighter jets.
RAAF Base Williamtown near Newcastle is the home base to the Air Force’s fleet of F-35A Lightning II Joint Strike Fighters, and is also the “Asia-Pacific regional hub for maintenance and warehousing of components”.
In Israel, Tel Aviv is home to the HQ of the Israel Air Force and the head office of Lockheed Martin Israel Ltd. The main Israeli Air Force location where Israel bases three F-35 Joint Strike Fighter squadrons is Nevatim Airbase in the desert area of the south of Israel. The airbase is 45 kms east of Gaza, that’s less than 2 minutes flying time for an F-35 fighter jet.
Israel’s F-35s have been used to commit war crimes in Gaza, including airstrikes on designated safe zones killing hundreds of people. The fighter jets were also deployed during Israel’s recent illegal airstrikes on Iran.

After the commercial flight left Sydney Airport last Friday, the Thai Airways passenger plane flew to Bangkok, where the goods were transferred to the Israeli El Al airline flight to Tel Aviv. The plane with its package of F-35 aircraft parts from Australia, touched down in Israel’s largest city at 8.09 pm last Sunday evening, 6 July.
Direct supply of ‘restricted’ F-35 parts
This was not the first flight of F-35 aircraft parts sent directly from Australia to Israel.
On 9 April, Sydney International Airport saw Thai Airways flight TG472 depart with another two packages containing “Aircraft parts” connecting to the El Al flight LY86 to Tel Aviv.
Documents show the part as labelled for the JSF, the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, and the source as being Lockheed Martin, the maker of the Joint Strike Fighter.
As with the flight last week, the supplier was stated as the RAAF, the sender was listed as Tindal, the pick-up location Williamtown, and the receiver location Tel Aviv.
However this time the goods being flown had a quite different status. The two parts on this flight, each weighing 1kg, were described as “Target”, and were marked as being subject to ITAR.
ITAR is the US State Department’s International Traffic in Arms Regulations which set out the controls for the export of weapons and defence articles. This listing confirms the parts’ actual military use. The ITAR parts being exported from Australia were listed on the official US Munitions List of defence-related articles and services such as military hardware, guidance systems, armaments, military aircraft, related technical data, and software.
Under its supervisory role of the Defence Strategic Goods List, Australia’s Defence Department is required to ensure that those items, if they have been approved for export, will not be used in breach of international law.
After landing in Bangkok on the Thai Airways flight from Sydney, the two packages holding F-35 aircraft parts were transferred onto the connecting El Al flight to Tel Aviv, Israel. The goods from Australia arrived at Tel Aviv airport at 4.17pm on 14 April.
New evidence places Australia in the dock
This first concrete information of aircraft parts for Israel’s F-35 fighter being sent directly from Australia to Israel, some 21 months after 7 October, is evidence the federal government can no longer deny or disguise.
Previously statements effectively tried to wash Australia’s hands of responsibility for provision of F-35 parts and components to Israel, with responses that all F-35 parts sourced from Australia are contributed to a global supply chain and fed into centralised global distribution hubs in the United States, and in Netherlands.
Australian made parts and components are included in that central pool in the US, and the US determines the priority for allocation of parts. This serves to provide all contributing countries with ‘plausible deniability’ if the parts and components then go to Israel.

Nonetheless, before issuing an export permit, the Australian Defence Minister considers 12 criteria, outlined in the regulations, related to the potential impact on Australia’s security, defence, and international relations. These criteria assess the risk of the export negatively affecting Australia’s interests, particularly in relation to military and strategic concerns, international law, and peace.
The Minister must consider the impacts of supplying the goods, including the end-use of the goods or technology, the impact on international peace and security, compliance with international obligations.
This following response by a senior Defence official in a Senate committee in June 2024, under questioning by Senator David Shoebridge, reflects the overall Defence position on its obligations. It grimly confirms the manner of the hand washing that the Defence Department goes through:
“We are part of a consortium on the F-35 capability. So, that is all exported to a central repository in the United States. So, export permits that will be seeking to export, will require an export to that destination in the United States, doesn’t relate to specifically to the conflict in Israel.”
“And I think the question of whether or not the F-35 is being employed in the crisis in Israel is not material to the question of whether or not we grant an export permit.”
And so, not a drop of responsibility, nor a drop of Palestinian blood, is retained on defence and political hands in Canberra.
Australian government responses like this, claiming Australia therefore has a hands-off role, in light of today’s new evidence, can no longer be sustained.
International fightback against defence trade to Israel
The provision of parts and components for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter in spite of international rulings, has led to global concern over complicity in Israel’s considerable human rights abuses in Gaza.
In June the British High Court heard a case by the Palestinian human rights organisation Al-Haq and the Global Legal Action Network, that the supply to Israel of parts for the F-35 fighter jets “gives rise to a significant risk of facilitating crime”.
The court ruled that the UK government’s decision to allow the export of F-35 jet parts to Israel was in fact lawfully made, despite accepting that they could be used in breach of international humanitarian law. It stated “that acutely sensitive and political issue is a matter for the executive… not for the courts”.
The UK govt is concerned over the legal ramifications and has now stopped sending British parts and components directly to Israel. However it continues to contribute to the centralised global pool, in an apparent attempt to out-source responsibility.
In Australia, pressure from the Australian Centre for International Justice (ACIJ) representing Al-Haq and other groups, plus exposure by Greens politicians and some independent journalists, led to the federal government commencing a review of defence export permits. So far, the Defence Department has “lapsed or amended” 16 permits.

This month the ACIJ stated that it would continue to press for greater transparency and an end to Australia supplying parts and components to Israel. It stated:
“This ruling does not alter the fact that the Australian Government has obligations to prevent the export of weapons, including parts and components, from facilitating atrocities in Gaza and across the region.”
Internationally, legal challenges to the export to Israel of weapons and defence components have been mounted in F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program partner countries of Canada, Denmark, Netherlands, and even the USA, with some variable success, and Italy suspended issue of new licenses in October last year.
Israel is still maintaining its devastating bombing strikes and military assaults on civilians in Gaza, and is now pressing for the concentration of Palestinians into camps in the south of Gaza, in preparation to evacuation of much of Gaza. In the face of these acts of ethnic cleansing, Australia is obliged to uphold the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and United Nations’ calls to member states to obey international law.
In January 2024, the ICJ concluded that there was a plausible risk of Israel committing acts of genocide in Gaza. In October 2024, the United Nations “Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel” stipulated that compliance with the International Court of Justice (ICJ)’s findings requires action by every member State, which includes Australia, stating:
“[Any member state] shall cease its transfer or trade until the State is satisfied that the goods and technology subject to the transfer or trade are not contributing to maintaining the unlawful occupation or to the commission of war crimes or genocide.”
Evidence of complicity in war crimes is accumulating
The evidence revealed by Declassified Australia from the leaked flight records adds to a considerable amount of information that has broken through the veil of silence in Canberra. It will help empower the official inquiry into Australia’s support of the Israeli Gaza genocide, that must one day come.
Declassified Australia’s Kellie Tranter, this article’s co-writer, has previously reported in detail on Australia’s export trade with Israel, revealing the use of Israeli F-35 jets with Australian parts, the expanding defence trade with Israel, the twists and denials of government officials, and obtained the first complete list of Australian exports to Israel.
Declassified Australia has also published reporting by Michelle Fahy on how the Australian government was obscuring details on its defence exports to Israel, showed how pressure forced the Australian government to reluctantly admit to defence exports to Israel, and actually confirmed the sale of lethal anti-drone machine guns to Israel.
Declassified Australia submitted several questions to the Defence Department about the nature and purpose of the export of these F-35 aircraft parts directly to Israel. We also asked whether the exports have been approved by the department, and if so what steps were taken to ensure that those items exported will not be used in breach of international law. Declassified Australia had not received a response at the time of publication.
The evidence published here of the direct export of several F-35 aircraft parts from an RAAF base in Australia by plane to Israel means that the Australian government itself is directly breaching the ICJ and UN calls by supplying the Israel Defence Force with the means to maintain and sustain its F-35 fighter jets to continue Israeli war crimes in its genocidal campaign against the Palestinian people of Gaza.
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