Pressure mounts for suspension of UK arms sales to Israel as top lawyers lobby for weapon export ban
More than 600 lawyers have signed a letter, suggesting the government risks breaching international law by allowing the export of weapons to Israel. ITV News Correspondent John Ray and Senior International Correspondent John Irvine report
Pressure continues to mount on the government to suspend arms sales to Israel following the deaths of three British aid workers in an airstrike in Gaza.
A letter, published on Wednesday night and signed by more than 600 top lawyers, said the government risked breaching international law by continuing to allow the export of weapons to Israel.
The 17-page letter says the UK must act in response to the “catastrophic” situation in Gaza because the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled in a provisional judgement that there is a plausible risk of genocide being committed against Palestinians.
It accuses ministers of falling “significantly short” of their obligations under international law over the sale of weapons to Israel and the suspension of aid to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, which Israel claims has links with Hamas.
Signatories, including former Supreme Court President Lady Hale, former justices Lord Sumption and Lord Wilson, along with nine other judges and 69 KCs.
The scale and standing of the signatories means it can only be taken very seriously by politicians in the UK and beyond.
Former circuit judge Nic Madge told the PA news agency: “To take just two examples, if the UK were to supply the calibre of bullets which have been responsible for the deaths of children or the types of shells which have hit aid convoys, the UK would be likely to be in breach of international law.”
Human rights lawyer Michael Mansfield KC said that “effectively, we’ve reached genocide already”.
The letter came at the end of a day of cross-party calls for the suspension of arms exports to Israel following the news that three British nationals were among the seven aid workers killed on Monday night.
The charity World Central Kitchen said on Thursday it is calling for an “independent investigation into the IDF strikes that killed seven members” of its team in Gaza.
Labour’s shadow foreign secretary, David Lammy, urged the government to publish any legal advice it had received on whether Israel had broken international law, and to suspend arms sales if there was a risk weapons could be used in “a serious breach of international humanitarian law”.
He said: “The law is clear. British arms licences cannot be granted if there is a clear risk that the items might be used to commit or facilitate a serious violation of international humanitarian law.
“Labour’s message to the government is equally clear. Publish the legal advice now. If it says there is a clear risk that UK arms might be used in a serious breach of international humanitarian law, it’s time to suspend the sale of those arms.”
On Tuesday, Downing Street declined to say whether it believed Israel was operating within international humanitarian law, saying it would not comment on legal advice but added ministers acted in accordance with any advice.
'The only way to stop this conflict is to stop sending weapons to Israel': Save the Children Gaza response team leader Karyn Beattie told ITV News that the people of Gaza will continue to deteriorate unless a ceasefire is reached
However, one charity has claimed Israel committed an apparent war crime after a separate attack on a Gaza apartment building on October 31, which killed at least 106 civilians, including 54 children.
Human Rights Watch says four separate strikes collapsed the Engineer’s Building in central Gaza, which was housing some 350 people, around a third of whom had fled their homes elsewhere in the territory.
Witnesses told the rights group there was no warning ahead of the attack.
Human Rights Watch says Israeli authorities have not published any information about the purported target and did not respond to its requests for information.
Save the Children Gaza response team leader Karyn Beattie, told ITV News: "We have to stop giving arms to Israeli forces. Unless there is a ceasefire, a definitive ceasefire, nothing is going to change.
"I think that after six months of trying to survive you reach a breaking point. And I think that is what is happening. So there is not enough aid that has come in.
"They don't have any coping mechanisms whatsoever. They are 100% reliant on humanitarian aid. The problem is we can't get it in with enough volume to be able to meet those needs.
"And, if the war doesn't stop that will mean we continue to be at risk just as World Central Kitchen."
The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press on Thursday.
The SNP and the Liberal Democrats have also called for arms exports to be suspended, as have Conservative MPs Flick Drummond and David Jones following a similar plea from Lord Ricketts, the former national security adviser to now-Foreign Secretary David Cameron.
Lord Cameron refused to answer questions on the situation in Gaza in interviews on Thursday.
On Wednesday, speaking ahead of a Nato summit in Brussels, he commented on the bravery of people working in the area and said "proper deconfliction" was necessary.
Rishi Sunak said the UK had a “very careful” arms export regime that it would “always follow”.
He told The Sun newspaper’s Never Mind The Ballots show that there are rules, regulations and procedures that always need to be followed.
"I have been consistently clear with Prime Minister Netanyahu since the start of this conflict that while, of course, we defend Israel’s right to defend itself and its people against attacks from Hamas, they have to do that in accordance with international humanitarian law, protect civilian lives and, sadly, too many civilians have already lost their lives.”
The government does not directly supply Israel with weapons, but does grant export licences for British companies to sell arms to the country and can block those sales by suspending the licences.
The UK has taken this course twice before. Margaret Thatcher’s government suspended arms exports following Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon, while Tony Blair’s government blocked sales of some military equipment in 2002.
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