Ten Britons accused of war crimes in Gaza referred to police after legal complaint
A war crimes complaint against 10 British nationals accused of committing war crimes for the Israeli military in Gaza will be handed to the Metropolitan Police on Monday.
A team of legal experts, including prominent human rights lawyer Michael Mansfield, will submit a 240-page report with the Met's war crimes team on behalf of the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) and the Public Interest Law Centre (PILC).
The full report and identities of the accused have not been made public for legal reasons but the 10 people accused include Israeli dual nationals.
They are accused of crimes including murder, extermination, attacking civilians and the deportation or forcible transfer of a population.
'In the last 18 months we have witnessed international crimes unfold. Our leaders have done little if anything to prevent the suffering of millions of innocent Palestinians,' Mansfield said.
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'We ask the War Crimes Team to take this report seriously, investigate and, if proven, arrest and try the individuals named.
'British nationals are under a legal obligation not to collude with crimes committed in Palestine. No one is above the law.'
'Directly contributing to atrocities'
The report, which has been prepared by a team of UK lawyers and researchers in the Hague and is based on six months of research, covers alleged offences committed from October 2023 to May last year.
Testimony collected by PCHR includes one account from a Palestinian witness whose relatives were killed in an Israeli attack.
'I could not bear what I saw: dead bodies scattered next to each other,' they said.
'I could not recognise them as they were covered with a blanket… I took off the cover and saw the bodies of my uncle and his son, my nephews, and my brother-in-law along with other displaced people's bodies.'
UK Labour MPs 'astounded' to be detained and deported from Israel Read More »
Green Party MP Ellie Chowns, responding to news of the complaint, called on the British government to 'set out how it will hold any UK nationals implicated in war crimes in Palestine to account'.
PILC legal director Paul Heron said: 'Shockingly, British citizens have actively served in Israel's armed forces, directly contributing to atrocities.
'As a law centre based in Britain, we have a duty to stand up. We're filing our report to make clear these war crimes are not in our name.'
The Brussels-based Hind Rajab Foundation has sought to initiate nearly 100 cases against Israeli soldiers in 14 countries with universal jurisdiction: Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Chile, Cyprus, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Serbia, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden and Thailand.
In January this year, the Israeli military advised dozens of soldiers against travelling abroad after reportedly tracking around 30 war crimes complaints and legal actions targeting its personnel for their roles in operations in Gaza.
This latest development in Britain comes after the family of a British aid worker killed by an Israeli drone strike in Gaza slammed the British government last week for refusing to release information about the attack gathered by a Royal Air Force (RAF) spy plane.
James Kirby, a 47-year-old former British Army rifleman, was working in Gaza for the World Central Kitchen when he was killed last April in an Israeli targeted attack on a three-car aid convoy.
He died alongside several others, including two other British veterans.
The UK's Ministry of Defence (MoD) told the Times it had footage from a RAF spy plane that was flying over Gaza trying to locate Israeli captives on the day of the strike.
Officials at the MoD refused to disclose the footage, citing national security and defence exemptions.
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