21 Aug 2024: Lawyers seeking a court order to halt UK arms exports to Israel have submitted evidence to the High Court in London of Palestinians facing torture, being left without adequate medical treatment and facing serious threats from Israeli bombs.
According to the Guardian, the evidence includes 14 detailed witness statements, spanning over 100 pages, from Palestinian and Western doctors working in Gaza hospitals, along with testimonies from ambulance drivers, civil defence workers and aid organisations.
The legal action was initiated by several NGOs, including Al-Haq, Amnesty International, Oxfam and the Global Legal Action Network (GLAN). The aim is to support a request for a court order, arguing that the UK government has acted irrationally by refusing to ban arms sales despite the clear risk that these weapons could be used to violate international humanitarian law, a key criterion when considering whether or not to issue arms export licences. The Labour government is currently reviewing its arms export policy.
Witnesses have provided signed testimony to the court, although only two are named by the British newspaper to protect the families in Gaza. The judicial review is scheduled for 8 to 10 October.
The case marks the first effort to present such graphic evidence of alleged Israeli war crimes before a British judge since 7 October. The previous Conservative government defended its decision to continue granting arms export licences, arguing there was insufficient evidence to suggest that UK weapons were being used in war crimes.
Dr Ben Thomson, a Canadian kidney specialist, is one of two named witnesses in the case. He recounted treating a patient who had been forced to stand for 48 hours, requiring a skin graft on his heel. He also treated a 60-year-old man who had been stripped naked by Israeli forces, bound tightly at the wrists for three days, and dragged across the floor until his wrist was worn down to the bone.
“Every part of the healthcare system has been targeted and destroyed and is now completely incapable of providing care,” explained Thomson. “So many people are dying from issues that are completely treatable.” He said that he had personally treated three children whom he could have saved if he had had any access to the appropriate medicines.
The second named witness, Dr Khaled Dawas, is a consultant surgeon at University College Hospital London. He described the conditions in Gaza hospitals as reminiscent of “medieval medicine”. Many of his patients, he pointed out, were victims of sniper fire and he challenged Israel’s justification for attacks on hospitals.
“I understand that Israel justifies its attacks on hospitals by reference to its claim that the hospitals are overrun by militants, but in my four weeks in Al-Aqsa Hospital I personally did not see a single one.” Dawas added that on his second visit, he treated a disabled man who had been handcuffed, blindfolded and bound to his wheelchair for 30 days.
According to Charlotte Andrews-Briscoe, a barrister representing GLAN who compiled and submitted the evidence, the only “limiting factor” in gathering witness statements was the overwhelming number of cases of mistreatment and abuse.
