Lawyers seeking arms export ban submit claims of Israeli war crimes to UK court
Palestinians check the damages after a convoy of ambulances was hit, at the entrance of Shifa hospital in Gaza City, 3 November 2023
Patrick Wintour reports in The Guardian on 19 August 2024:
Claims of Palestinians being tortured, left untreated in hospital and unable to escape constant bombardment have been submitted to the high court in London by lawyers seeking an order preventing the UK government continuing to grant arms export licences to British companies selling arms to Israel.
The 14 witness statements covering more than 100 pages come from Palestinian and western medical doctors working in Gaza’s hospitals, as well as from ambulance drivers, civil defence department workers and aid workers.
The graphic evidence is designed to support a request for a court order that the UK government has acted irrationally in refusing to ban the sale of arms, arguing there was not a clear risk the weapons would be used to commit breaches of international humanitarian law. This is the statutory test set for the government to decide whether to grant arms export licences. The Labour government is reviewing the policy.
The signed testimony has been given by witnesses all identified to the court, but only two of them are being named by the Guardian due to the need to protect families in Gaza from potential retribution. The judicial review is due to be held between 8 and 10 October.
The case has been brought by an alliance of NGOs including Al-Haq, Global Legal Action Network (GLAN), Amnesty International, Oxfam and Human Rights Watch. It is the first attempt to put such graphic testimony of alleged Israeli war crimes in front of a British judge since Hamas launched its deadly attack on Israel on 7 October in which more than 1,100 Israelis were killed and 250 taken hostage.