British human rights lawyers filed a 240-page war crimes complaint with London police on Monday against 10 British citizens serving in the Israel Defense Forces throughout the war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, UK media reported.
The dossier, handed to London’s Metropolitan Police war crimes unit, alleges the troops intentionally killed civilians and aid workers by sniper fire, were involved in the displacement of civilians, and participated in indiscriminate attacks on civilian areas, including hospitals, The Guardian reported.
The file “will now be assessed by specialist officers to determine whether any UK-based investigation may be required,” a Counter Terrorism Policing spokesperson told the BBC.
“At this time, there is no UK-based investigation into any matters relating to this particular conflict,” police added.
The report covers the period from October 2023 to May 2024 and was submitted on behalf of the Gaza-based Palestinian Center for Human Rights and the British-based Public Interest Law Center.
The Guardian said that the suspects, who include dual nationals, remain unnamed for legal reasons.
The BBC said it contacted the IDF for a response to the report. Israel has denied all accusations of war crimes.
Israel has said it seeks to minimize civilian fatalities and stresses that Hamas uses Gaza’s civilians as human shields, fighting from civilian areas including homes, hospitals, schools and mosques.
“British nationals are under a legal obligation not to collude with crimes committed in Palestine. No one is above the law,” Michael Mansfield, one of the lawyers who handed in the dossier, told The Guardian.
“If one of our nationals is committing an offense, 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.”
Sean Summerfield, a Doughty Street Chambers barrister who helped create the document, said he wanted to see those accused “appearing at the Old Bailey to answer for atrocity crimes.”
“The public will be shocked, I would have thought, to hear that there’s credible evidence that Brits have been directly involved in committing some of those atrocities,” he added.
“This is illegal, this is inhuman and enough is enough,” said Raji Sourani, the director of the PCHR. “The government cannot say we didn’t know; we are providing them with all the evidence.”
Pro-Palestinian groups have launched a global effort to prosecute IDF soldiers for alleged war crimes. Some soldiers have been warned by the military not to travel or told to immediately return from their destinations due to a risk of being arrested.
War erupted when Hamas-led terrorists rampaged through southern Israel on October 7, 2023, murdering some 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages to Gaza.
Israel launched the offensive in Gaza to eliminate the terror group and bring back the captives.
The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 50,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting so far, though the toll cannot be verified and does not differentiate between civilians and fighters. Israel says it has killed some 20,000 combatants in battle as of January and another 1,600 terrorists inside Israel on October 7.