Leading human rights lawyer Michael Mansfield KC is part a group of lawyers and human rights activists who have handed a 240-page dossier to Scotland Yard’s war crimes unit, accusing the Britons of targeting and killing civilians and aid workers, including through sniper fire, as well as carrying out indiscriminate attacks on civilian sites, such as hospitals.
The names of the British nationals who served with the Israeli military have not been made public for legal reasons.
“If one of our nationals is committing an offence, we ought to be doing something about it,” Mansfield said before the dossier was submitted to police. “Even if we can’t stop the government of foreign countries behaving badly, we can at least stop our nationals from behaving badly.”
What are the allegations?
The report accuses the ten Britons of targeting and killing civilians and aid workers, carrying out indiscriminate attacks on civilian infrastructure, such as hospitals, and the forced transfer and displacement of civilians.
The individuals are also accused of coordinated attacks on protected cultural sites, including historic monuments and religious sites.
The local civil defence agency said Israeli strikes killed at least 44 people in the Gaza Strip on April 6, one of them hitting a residential building in Deir al-Balah, killing several people, including women and children, according to witnesses (Photo: Eyad Baba/AFP)Figures from the Gaza Ministry of Health are seen as reliable by the United Nations (UN) and international institutions. Israel has consistently disputed data published by Gaza’s authorities.
A number of legal and human rights experts have signed a letter of support urging the UK’s war crimes team to investigate the complaints.
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“These incidents are of course just the tip of the iceberg. Our submission to the Metropolitan Police therefore calls for the urgent commencement of an investigation into those British nationals,” said Paul Heron, PILC Legal Director and founder.
“We’ve met with them, and they do seem to be very keen to investigate the matter further. And we just hope that there’s no political interference into their investigations.”
“This is illegal, this is inhuman and enough is enough. The government cannot say we didn’t know; we are providing them with all the evidence,” Raji Sourani, the director of the PCHR, has said.
What does the law say?
Section 51 of the International Criminal Court Act (ICCA) 2001 stipulates that committing genocide, a crime against humanity, or a war crime is an offence under the law of England and Wales, regardless of whether the crime occurs in another country.
The report’s authors say that their findings provide substantial evidence for the Met’s war crimes team to initiate an investigation into the ten named suspects under the ICCA and the Geneva Conventions Act 1957 (GCA), which criminalises “grave breaches” of the Geneva Conventions – a series of international treaties that establish legal standards for the humane treatment of individuals during armed conflict.
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