A total of ten British citizens who had served in Israel’s army have been alleged to have committed war crimes in Gaza, The Guardian reported on April 7th.
The authorities have withheld both names of the suspects and the full report for legal reasons. The report claims all 10 suspects, including dual nationals, committed war crimes or crimes against humanity. Israel has consistently denied that its leaders or military committed war crimes during its Gaza offensive, which killed 50,000 civilians.
Sean Summerfield, a barrister at Doughty Street Chambers, said that the dossier has been created from open-source evidence and witness testimony. He expressed that the public will be shocked “to hear that there’s credible evidence that Brits have been directly involved in committing some of those atrocities.” Summerfield added that the assigned team intended to view individuals “appearing at the Old Bailey to answer for atrocity crimes.”
Human rights lawyers have created a dossier of 240 pages, which will be handed to the police. The report will be submitted on the behalf of the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights and the Public Interest Law Centre, which alleges that gross violations occurred between October 2023 and May last year.
The report said that Britain must investigate and prosecute those responsible for “core international crimes” under global treaties. As Section 51 of the International Criminal Court Act 2001 affirms that it “is an offence against the law of England and Wales for a person to commit genocide, a crime against humanity, or a war crime.”
PCHR director Raji Sourani said: “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.”
According to the BBC, the Met has obtained approximately 180 referrals related to the Gaza conflict since it started.
Earlier this year, on March 18th, the International Centre of Justice for Palestinians undertook comparable initiatives. The ICPJ declared a global campaign to pursue legal action against Israelis accused of being involved in war crimes in Gaza. The Global 195 initiative seeks to use domestic and international legal methods to hold individuals, including Israeli soldiers, accountable.
The Met also said: “At this time, there is no UK-based investigation into any matters relating to this particular conflict.”
BBC, The Guardian
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