Ten British citizens who have served with Israel’s military during the 18-month onslaught in Gaza have been accused of grave war crimes.
A team of lawyers in Britain and researchers in The Hague will today hand in a 240-page dossier to Scotland Yard’s war crimes unit detailing all the allegations against the suspects.
British citizens involved in ‘targeted killing of civilians’
These include the targeted killing of civilians and aid workers – including by sniper fire – and indiscriminate attacks on civilian areas, including hospitals.
It is alleged that they were involved in the forced transfer and displacement of civilians, and coordinated attacks on protected sites.
For legal reasons, neither the names of suspects, who include officer-level individuals, nor the full report are being made public.
What we know is that some of them are dual British-Israeli nationals. It is still unclear which of them are still taking part in Israeli assaults on Gaza and if any have since returned to the UK.
Witnesses from Gaza detail ‘grave’ crimes
This is the first report of its kind, providing detailed, fully researched, and compelling evidence of the involvement of British nationals in war crimes committed in the Palestinian territory.
Each of the crimes the 10 suspects are accused of amounts to a war crime or crime against humanity, according to the report.
Testimony from witnesses in Gaza recounts the ‘dead bodies scattered next to each other’.
One recalled removing a blanket from corpses to find ‘the bodies of my uncle and his son, my nephews, and my brother-in-law along with other displaced people’s bodies’.
Another witness said soldiers ‘ordered my father, husband and children to strip.
To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web
browser that
supports HTML5
video
A third witness, who was at a medical facility, saw corpses ‘scattered on the ground, especially in the middle of the hospital courtyard, where many dead bodies were buried in a mass grave’.
They recalled a bulldozer ‘running over a dead body in a horrific and
heart-wrenching scene desecrating the dead’.
‘No one is above the law’
Michael Mansfield KC, who is known for his work on landmark cases such as the Grenfell Tower fire, Stephen Lawrence and the Birmingham Six, is one of a group of lawyers who have worked on the dossier.
Follow Metro on WhatsApp to be the first to get all the latest news
Metro’s on Whatsapp! Join our community for breaking news and juicy stories.
He said ‘no one is above the law’, adding: ‘If one of our nationals is committing an offence, we ought to be doing something about it.
‘Even if we can’t stop the government of foreign countries behaving badly, we can at least stop our nationals from behaving badly.
‘British nationals are under a legal obligation not to collude with crimes committed in Palestine. No one is above the law.’
The report, based on six months of extensive evidence gathering, covers alleged offences committed in Gaza from October 2023 to May 2024.
‘Shockingly, British citizens have actively served in Israel’s armed forces, directly contributing to atrocities,’ said Paul Heron, legal director of PILC, which commissioned the document.
‘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.’
It has previously been reported that more than 80 British nationals were serving in Israel’s military a month before October 7.
Another 20-30 are understood to have resided in illegal settlements in the West Bank.
What is a war crime?
War crimes come under the collective name of ‘core international crimes’.
These are some of the gravest crimes in international law, examples of them can include genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and torture.
Through international treaties the UK has a responsibility to investigate and prosecute those who have committed them.
The Metropolitan Police says that if a UK resident has been responsible for core international crimes anywhere in the world, they may be investigated and prosecuted in the UK.
Got a story? Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk. Or you can submit your videos and pictures here.
For more stories like this, check our news page.
Follow Metro.co.uk on Twitter and Facebook for the latest news updates. You can now also get Metro.co.uk articles sent straight to your device. Sign up for our daily push alerts here.