Independent tribunal told government did little to hold Israel to account and aimed to shield itself from scrutiny

Britain is not just complicit in Israel’s breaches of humanitarian law in Gaza but a participant that has repeatedly ignored its legal obligation to prevent a genocide, witnesses have told the independent Gaza tribunal.

The two-day tribunal in London, which is independent of government and parliament, is seeking to amass evidence of Britain’s failure to distance itself from what the tribunal organisers regard as Israeli war crimes amounting to genocide.

RAF pilots flying from the UK Akrotiri airbase in Cyprus systematically shared intelligence in real time with the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), but not with the international criminal court.

No 10 failed to provide the support requested by lawyers acting for James Henderson, the British World Central Kitchen aid worker killed by the IDF on 1 April 2024, leaving them reliant on an IDF internal investigation, with a coroners’ inquiry still as long as two years away.

Britain provided no support to the chief prosecutor at the international criminal court, Karim Khan, after the US government imposed sanctions that led a British bank to close his account, “so emboldening those who seek to dismantle international accountability”.

The UK trade department continued to allow the import of products from Israel-occupied territories after the international court of justice in July 2024 ruled in an advisory opinion that the occupation was unlawful.