10 Britons accused of war crimes while serving with IOF in Gaza
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A complaint detailing war crimes committed by 10 Britons who fought with the Israeli military in Gaza will be submitted to the Metropolitan Police, accusing them of atrocities such as targeted killings, indiscriminate attacks, and forced displacement.
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The body of Palestinian Ramzi Abu Maghaseem killed by an Israeli army bombardment is brought to a hospital in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, on Sunday, April 6, 2025. (AP)
A report by The Guardian on Monday revealed a complaint on war crimes committed by 10 Britons who fought alongside the Israeli occupation in Gaza. According to the report, the complaint will be submitted to the Metropolitan Police by one of the UK’s top human rights lawyers.
Michael Mansfield KC, alongside a group of lawyers, will present a 240-page dossier to Scotland Yard’s war crimes unit on Monday, accusing the suspects of targeted killings of civilians and aid workers, indiscriminate attacks on civilian areas, including hospitals, and coordinated assaults on protected sites like historic and religious landmarks.
The report, compiled by UK lawyers and researchers in The Hague, also includes accusations of forced displacement of civilians. For legal reasons, however, the suspects' names and the full report will not be made public.
The Israeli occupation has repeatedly denied committing war crimes during its Gaza assault, which killed over 50,000 people, mostly civilians.
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Mansfield, renowned for his work on high-profile cases, stated, "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, submitted on behalf of the Gaza-based Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) and the UK-based Public Interest Law Centre (PILC), outlines alleged crimes committed in Gaza from October 2023 to May 2024 and was compiled over six months.
It also claims that each crime attributed to the 10 suspects, some of whom are dual nationals, qualifies as a war crime or crime against humanity.
'Atrocities in Gaza'
As mentioned in the report, one witness who was at a medical facility described seeing corpses "scattered on the ground, especially in the middle of the hospital courtyard, where many dead bodies were buried in a mass grave."
The witness also recounted a bulldozer running over a dead body in a "horrific and heart-wrenching" scene, desecrating the deceased and demolishing part of the hospital.
Sean Summerfield, a barrister at Doughty Street Chambers who contributed to the dossier, said it was based on open-source evidence and witness testimony, which together made a "compelling" case.
“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 said, adding that the team wanted to see individuals “appearing at the Old Bailey to answer for atrocity crimes”.
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The report says Britain is responsible under international treaties to investigate and prosecute those who have committed “core international crimes”.
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 in another country.
Raji Sourani, the director of the PCHR, 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.”
Paul Heron, the legal director of the PILC, said, “We’re filing our report to make clear these war crimes are not in our name.”
