"The UK has not concluded that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, nor that any of the British-made parts for F-35 jets sold to Israel have directly led to breaches of international humanitarian law, ministers have told parliament. Ministers have also rejected calls for an independent audit of UK arms sales, but admitted they were not in a position to say if Israel's assault in Gaza had led to any breaches of humanitarian law owing to the complexity of the fighting terrain."
"They rejected a proposal that the crime and policing bill for England and Wales be amended to make it easier to prosecute foreign nationals in the UK courts suspected of war crimes, including deprivation of aid or the killing of aid workers, a change that would make it easier for Israeli government leaders to be arrested if they visited the UK."
"The UK government's position came in a letter to Sarah Champion, the chair of the international development select committee, from David Lammy, who was foreign secretary until last week, in response to recommendations from the committee in a report on protecting humanitarian workers. The government said it was still studying the implications for the British government policy of a provisional finding by the UN international court of justice (ICJ) that Israel's occupation of Palestine was unlawful. Those findings were published in June 2024, and the court urged governments to act on them. Ministers say they are still studying the non-binding ruling with seriousness and rigour."
UK ministers state that the government has not concluded Israel is committing genocide in Gaza and has not found that British-made F-35 parts directly caused breaches of international humanitarian law. Ministers rejected calls for an independent audit of UK arms sales while saying they could not determine whether Israel's assault had caused humanitarian law breaches because of complex fighting terrain. Ministers rejected amending the crime and policing bill to ease prosecutions of foreign nationals for suspected war crimes. The government is studying a provisional ICJ finding that Israel's occupation of Palestine was unlawful and is assessing its policy implications with seriousness and rigour.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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