UK Nationals Accused of War Crimes in Gaza

A group of prominent British lawyers, led by human rights barrister Michael Mansfield KC, has submitted a 240-page dossier to the Metropolitan Police war crimes unit accusing ten Britons of participating in atrocities during Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, the Guardian reported on Monday.

The complaint, based on months of research by legal teams in the UK and The Hague, alleges that the suspects—some of whom are dual nationals and held officer positions—were involved in the deliberate killing of civilians and aid workers, sniper attacks, and indiscriminate bombings of civilian infrastructure, including hospitals.

The report also accuses them of carrying out coordinated assaults on protected cultural and religious sites, and forcibly displacing Palestinian civilians from their homes.

The names of the suspects have not been disclosed, and the full report remains confidential due to legal restrictions.

The complaint is filed on behalf of the Gaza-based Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) and the UK-based Public Interest Law Centre (PILC), and documents alleged crimes from October 2023 to May 2024.

Despite mounting evidence and international condemnation, Israel has consistently rejected all allegations of war crimes, even as its military campaign has left more than 50,000 Palestinians dead—most of them civilians, according to local authorities.

Mansfield, known for his work on high-profile injustice cases, said Britain could no longer turn a blind eye.

“If one of our nationals is committing an offence, we ought to be doing something about it,” he said. “Even if we can’t stop the government of foreign countries behaving badly, we can at least stop our nationals from behaving badly.”

He added, “British nationals are under a legal obligation not to collude with crimes committed in Palestine. No one is above the law.”

One witness cited in the report described scenes of horror at a medical facility: bodies scattered across a courtyard and a bulldozer desecrating corpses as it ran them over. The same machinery, the witness said, destroyed part of the hospital.

Sean Summerfield, a barrister at Doughty Street Chambers who contributed to the report, said the dossier was grounded in open-source intelligence and eyewitness testimony.

“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.

He emphasized that the legal team wants to see these individuals “appearing at the Old Bailey to answer for atrocity crimes.”

The report reminds the UK of its obligation under international law to investigate and prosecute core international crimes, including genocide and crimes against humanity, regardless of where they occur.

Section 51 of the International Criminal Court Act 2001 establishes that such acts are criminal under UK law, even when committed abroad.

Raji Sourani, director of 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, legal director of the PILC, added: “We’re filing our report to make clear these war crimes are not in our name.”

Dozens of legal and human rights professionals have signed a letter supporting the complaint and urging British authorities to investigate.

Since the Israeli genocidal war began in October 2023, nearly 50,700 Palestinians have been killed, most of them women and children, according to Gaza health officials.

The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants in November for Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice over its military actions in the enclave.