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Ten Britons who fought with the Israeli military in Gaza could be investigated for war crimes by the Metropolitan Police after lawyers lodged a report on Monday.
The 240-page report filed by prominent barrister Michael Mansfield KC, among others, documents alleged war crimes committed in Gaza between October 2023 and May last year.
It identifies and accuses the 10 Britons of involvement in crimes including the “targeted” killing of civilians and aid workers, “indiscriminate” attacks on civilian areas and the forced transfer and displacement of civilians. Israel has repeatedly denied that its political leaders or military have committed war crimes during the war in Gaza.
The Met Police’s War Crimes Unit considers allegations made against people who are in the UK or are likely to enter the country in the near future. It is also supporting the International Criminal Court in its investigation in Palestine, and will submit any relevant information it receives to the court.
Anybody can submit a report to the unit, including individual victims. Once received, the Met Police and the Crown Prosecution Service determine whether there are sufficient grounds to open an investigation, and whether there is any relevant information to pass on to the ICC.
The names of the 10 Britons identified in the report, and the full report, cannot be released until the Metropolitan Police considers the complaint. But the Public Interest Legal Centre (PILC), a UK legal charity which commissioned the report, said it included officers in the Israeli military.
Lawyers involved in the report hope it will highlight the UK’s moral obligations in Palestine and bring British nationals complicit in war crimes to justice.
Outside New Scotland Yard on Monday, Mr Mansfield said the UK risked losing its legacy as a standard-bearer for international law and the commitment to human rights that emerged from the Second World War. “We’re standing on the brink of collapse of the rule of law,” he said.
He said the decision to lodge the complaint was a “practical” step for UK citizens who have felt powerless over the UK government’s continued support of Israel. “As citizens of a country that has held out, we can do something about it,” he said.
Evidence submitted in the report includes those compiled by Palestine Centre for Human Rights in Gaza, which has a 45-member team documenting violations across Gaza. It is by the prominent Palestinian lawyer Raji Sourani, who is known as “Mr ICC” for his work preparing cases documenting human rights violations and war crimes.
"The UK prosecutor is the one who should be investigating and charging [the soldiers] in the UK. If he can claim that he didn't know, through this submission to the war crimes unit we will make sure the UK does know," he told the media outside New Scotland Yard.
But most of the information was derived from open-source material available online. "At this moment, Gaza is subjected to bombardment and slaughter. That is a big shame, when genocide has been streamed live for 18 months," Mr Sourani said.
Individual Israeli soldiers, including those residing in the UK, have in the past been identified through social media posts and public lectures they have given about the war in Gaza.
“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,” said PILC director Paul Heron.
About 100 legal and human rights experts have also signed a letter of support urging the War Crimes Team to investigate any and all complaints regarding involvement in war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Barrister Sean Summerfield of Doughty Street Chambers, who was involved in drafting the report, was optimistic that the War Crimes Unit would investigate the referrals.
"We've had preliminary conversations and they've been encouraging. Every indication seems to be that they're looking forward to receiving the material, that they'll investigate, they'll look at things properly" he told The National.
The Met Police could use its own additional tools to corroborate and investigate the findings, but some intelligence sharing and "dialogue" with the Israeli authorities may been needed. "It's more complicated, of course, because it's cross-border. If they're looking to investigate this properly, there's going to have to be some dialogue with the Israeli military, with the Israeli state," he said.
He dismissed concerns that Israel, which has its own stockpile of data gathered from the war and vast surveillance operations in Gaza, could find a loophole or get off on a minor technicality in the law. "The law on war crimes is very clear," he said.
Section 51 of the International Criminal Court Act 2001 states 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”, even if it takes place outside this jurisdiction.
Earlier war crimes referrals to the Met Police implicating five British ministers did not result in a Met Police investigation, according to the International Centre of Justice for Palestinians, which lodged those complaints in October 2023.
The ICJP is also working on applications for the private prosecution of British members of the Israeli military.
