Government 'has hands filled with blood', lawyer says as pressure mounts to ban arms sales to Israel

The UK government will face legal action if it does not heed calls to suspend arms exports to Israel, a human rights lawyer has said as he accused Rishi Sunak's administration of having "hands filled with blood".

Pressure is mounting on the government to immediately stop allowing weapons to be sold to ally Israel, with more than 600 lawyers, including former Supreme Court justices, signing an open letter to the prime minister saying the UK government is at risk of breaching British and international laws.

It comes after seven aid workers for World Central Kitchen (WCK), including Britons John Chapman, 57, James “Jim” Henderson, 33, and James Kirby, 47, were killed in an Israeli attack on Monday evening.

Signatories of the letter published on Wednesday night, including former Supreme Court president Lady Hale, said the worsening situation in Gaza and the International Court of Justice’s conclusion that there is a “plausible risk of genocide” oblige the UK to suspend arms sales to the country.

The head of the World Central Kitchen, whose workers were killed in an Israeli airstrike on Monday is calling for an independent investigation, ITV News's Martha Fairlie reports

One of the signatories, Aamer Anwar, a human rights lawyer, told ITV News he and his peers hope "the government implements its obligations, avoids complicity in serious breaches of international humanitarian law in Gaza and avoids complicity in genocide."

He accused the government of "appearing to look the other way" to the suffering of those in Gaza and previous warnings of a plausible risk of genocide.

"People who are instrumental, who have hands filled with blood in that, I would include the United Kingdom, I would include the United States and to be fair the rest of the world has been speaking up and condemning it, we seem to be the only one who are out of sync with world with world opinion on this people," Mr Anwar added.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described Monday's attack as unintended and “tragic” and pledged an independent inquiry. WCK founder José Andrés however claimed the Israeli military knew his aid workers’ movements and targeted them “systematically, car by car”.

Mr Anwar believes the attack was "not accidental, but deliberate" and accused Israel of targeting aid workers for months.

"It seems to me ironic that it takes the murder - because that's what I would call it - and the targeting of three white European British aid workers for the world to wake up to the fact," he added.

"What do they think has been happening for the last several months? I mean, what do they think has been happening to the Palestinians?

"We have watched - not in slow time - but in quick time, in real time, the targeting of ambulances, of paramedics, of doctors, of nurses."

Mr Anwar warned that if the government does not act on the letter's calls - including to suspend the export of arms, influence a secure ceasefire in Gaza and the West Bank, and secure the release of hostages - he and his peers will "absolutely" take legal action.

Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves called on the government to "urgently" publish its reports detailing what exported UK arms are being used for.

"UK law is very clear that if there is a risk that arms exports are used in a way that breach international humanitarian law, those arms exports cannot go ahead," she told ITV News West Country.

"The government now need to urgently publish the reports they have into that. We don't have access to that information, the government do. They must publish those reports so we can understand what UK arms exports are being used for and make the decision based on those facts."

Meanwhile, Conservative former minister Sir Alan Duncan is being investigated by the Conservative party after he criticised a number of ministers and former ministers for their stance on Israel and Gaza. He told LBC that it is time to “flush out those extremists in our own politics, some of whom are at the very top of government”.

He earlier told ITV News that unless the UK stops selling arms to Israel, "we will be in breach of our own laws and international humanitarian laws", adding: "This is about Israel so overstepping the mark that we should take a stand".

He added that under Netanyahu, Israel "is not fit to be an ally".

The government is yet to respond to calls for the arms suspension. Foreign Secretary Lord David Cameron described the killings of "brave" aid workers in Gaza as "dreadful" on Wednesday but has so far refused to answer questions from journalists.

Posting on X, formerly known as Twitter, he shared a video showing aid being distributed and said: "We are doing everything we can to get more aid to civilians in Gaza as quickly as possible by land, sea and air."

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) said this week's strike was "completely avoidable" and is merely "emblematic of thousands of other attacks on civilian, medical and humanitarian buildings and people in Gaza."

On January 18, an Israeli airstrike struck a residential compound in Al Mawasi - a declared safe zone in Gaza - that was housing doctors and aid workers from UK charity Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) and the IRC's Emergency Medical Team.

Four British doctors were injured in the bombing that the IRC described as "near fatal". The charity and Labour MPs have demanded to know why Israel has not investigated the incident.

The IRC said in a statement: "Almost three months on, we are yet to receive any credible explanation from the government of Israel as to why the attack occurred. There has been no thorough, transparent investigation, nor explanation of measures to prevent recurrence - and attacks on aid workers have continued since then."

"Assurances from the government of Israel that attacks against aid workers will not occur in the future must not be mere ink on paper. The IRC and MAP continue to call for a full, independent and timebound investigation of all reported attacks on humanitarian and deconflicted facilities and personnel in Gaza - resulting in a conclusive, public report."

ITV News has requested comment from the FCDO.

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