London, April 7 — A group of prominent UK human rights lawyers, led by renowned barrister Michael Mansfield KC, has submitted a war crimes complaint to the Metropolitan Police against 10 British nationals who allegedly served with the Israeli military during its operations in Gaza.
The 240-page dossier, presented on Monday to the Met’s War Crimes Unit, outlines a series of grave allegations, including targeted killings of civilians and aid workers, sniper attacks, and indiscriminate assaults on protected civilian areas such as hospitals and religious sites. It also documents the forced displacement of Palestinian civilians and destruction of cultural and historical landmarks.
Compiled over a six-month period by UK-based legal professionals and researchers in The Hague, the report has been filed on behalf of the Gaza-based Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) and the UK’s Public Interest Law Centre (PILC). The identities of the accused—some of whom are said to hold dual nationality and occupy officer-level military positions—have not been made public due to legal constraints.
Michael Mansfield KC, widely known for his role in landmark legal cases including the Grenfell Tower inquiry and the Stephen Lawrence case, emphasized the UK’s obligation to hold its nationals accountable for crimes committed abroad.
“If one of our nationals is committing an offence, we ought to be doing something about it,” Mansfield stated. “British nationals are under a legal obligation not to collude with crimes committed in Palestine. No one is above the law.”
The complaint relates to events that occurred between October 2023 and May 2024, during the Israeli military’s extensive campaign in Gaza following Hamas's deadly October 7 attack on southern Israel, which left over 1,200 dead and approximately 250 taken hostage. In response, Israel’s military operations have resulted in the deaths of more than 50,000 Palestinians, the majority of whom were civilians, according to international observers.
The dossier contains harrowing eyewitness testimony. One account describes scenes at a hospital where corpses lay scattered, and a bulldozer was seen desecrating the dead by running over a body and demolishing part of the medical facility.
Sean Summerfield, a barrister at Doughty Street Chambers who contributed to the report, described the evidence—based on eyewitness accounts and open-source data—as “compelling.”
“There’s credible evidence that Brits have been directly involved in committing some of those atrocities,” Summerfield said. “We want to see these individuals appear at the Old Bailey to answer for atrocity crimes.”
Under Section 51 of the International Criminal Court Act 2001, committing genocide, crimes against humanity, or war crimes is considered an offence under the laws of England and Wales, regardless of where the acts took place.
“This is illegal, this is inhuman — and enough is enough,” said Raji Sourani, Director of the PCHR. “The government cannot say it didn’t know; we are providing them with the evidence.”
Paul Heron, legal director at PILC, added: “We are filing this report to make clear that these war crimes are not being committed in our name.”
The submission is backed by a coalition of legal and human rights experts, who have issued a letter urging Scotland Yard’s war crimes team to launch a formal investigation into the allegations.
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