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UK ministers, MPs sued for complicity in Israel's war crimes in Gaza

A Palesitinian girl looks for salvageable items amid the destruction on the southern outskirts of Khan Yunis in on January 16, 2024. (AFP)

A Britain-based advocacy group has filed a lawsuit against senior UK politicians for their complicity in Israel’s war crimes against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

The International Center of Justice for Palestinians (ICJP) said on Tuesday that it handed its evidence dossier to the Metropolitan Police's War Crimes Unit last week.

The ICJP named several British ministers and lawmakers, accusing them of aiding and abetting war crimes through their continued military support for Israel.

The document provided evidence that UK weapons and intelligence are used in operations that "fail to respect the principles of distinction and proportionality and target civilians.”

“This is just the first tranche of our evidence and the first list of suspects,” said Tayab Ali, director of the ICJP and head of international law at Bindmans LLP.

“We will add further offences and further categories of suspects including commentators who continue to support war crimes."

He said that each account “not only serves as evidence but also as a solemn reminder of the human cost of this conflict.”

Ali said that the rights group will demand “a thorough and impartial investigation into these allegations."

The group’s 78-page complaint features photographic evidence as well as harrowing eyewitness accounts, including from British citizens, who were either present in Gaza or have family members there.

One witness gave an account of his former primary school teacher who was killed alongside 20 relatives in their family home in northern Gaza, leaving no survivors.

Another eyewitness said that his friend's brother, who is a doctor at Al Shifa Hospital, only learned that his wife and three children had died when he found their bodies in the hospital's corridors.

The dossier also includes evidence supporting reports that Israel’s military forces used white phosphorous against people in Gaza, one of the most densely populated areas in the world.

According to Human Rights Watch, the use of white phosphorus in crowded civilian areas creates “a high risk of excruciating burns and lifelong suffering.”

The use of white phosphorus is restricted under international humanitarian law. It must never be fired at, or in close proximity to, a populated civilian area or civilian infrastructure, due to the high likelihood that the fires and smoke it causes spread.

Such attacks, which fail to distinguish between civilians and civilian objects and fighters and military objectives, are indiscriminate and thus prohibited.

The British government is obligated under its own arms export laws to suspend arms export licenses if it determines that there is a clear risk that British weapons might be used in violations of international law.

Nevertheless, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in October that his government "will stand with [Tel Aviv] in solidarity, we will stand with your people, and we want you to win."

The governments of the UK, the United States and the European Union member states have been providing Israel with weapons and military assistance since the regime launched its genocidal campaign in the Gaza Strip

Israel's ongoing bombardment of the besieged Gaza Strip has so far claimed the lives of more than 24,000 people, over  10,000 of whom are infants and children.


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