A group of human rights lawyers in Great Britain want Scotland Yard to investigate and potentially arrest ten dual-national British and Israeli individuals for serving in the Israel Defense Forces during Israel’s war against Hamas. 

The group of attorneys, led by attorney Michael Mansfield, submitted a 240-page dossier to the War Crimes Team at Scotland Yard and asked for an investigation into the ten soldiers.

The dossier was filed on behalf of the Palestinian Center for Human Rights and the British-based Public Interest Law Center. A team of researchers from The Hague also contributed to its compilation. 

As dual citizens, the ten individuals are obligated to serve in the Israeli military. However, the attorneys say they have “credible” evidence of war crimes.

“​If one of our nationals is committing ​an offence, we ought to be doing something about it​. Even if we can’t stop the government of foreign countries behaving badly, we can at least stop our nationals from behaving badly,” Mr. Mansfield said.  “British nationals are under a legal obligation not to collude with crimes committed in Palestine. No one is above the law.”

In response to the allegations against the ten Britons, the chief executive of UK Lawyers for Israel, Jonathan Turner, told the Jewish News Syndicate that the report has “all the trappings of a publicity stunt.” 

“It is also noticeable that the alleged crimes referred to in the report differ from the main allegations made by the prosecutor of the ICC, namely that Israel used starvation as a method of warfare. We showed that the ICC prosecutor’s allegations were completely false, and I expect these allegations are false too,” Mr. Turner said.

The full details of the report and the names of the ten individuals accused of war crimes are not being released for legal reasons.

Some details of the allegations have been released, such as allegations of targeted attacks on protected sites like historical monuments or religious sites and forced displacement of civilians. 

A summary of the report included witness statements alleging that some of the soldiers beat an individual with a billiard stick and an electric cable. Another witness said they saw “dead bodies scattered next to each other” at a hospital. 

The dossier covers allegations stemming from the beginning of the war in October 2023 through May 2024 based on open-source intelligence and comments from people who say they witnessed the crimes.

The dossier received the support of 94 other legal and human rights groups urging law enforcement to investigate the allegations. 

The director of the Public Interest Law Center, Paul Heron, said, “As a law center based in Britain, we have a duty to stand up. We’re filing our report to make clear these war crimes are not in our name.”

Mr. Mansfield asked the War Crimes Team to “take this report seriously, investigate, and if proven, arrest and try the individuals named.”

The Metropolitan Police have not said if they will open a formal investigation into the allegations.