POLICE are assessing evidence that 10 British nationals committed war crimes in Gaza including sniping down children and aid workers.

Lawyers handed evidence accusing the group of the murder and torture of civilians while on active service with the Israeli military to the Metropolitan Police’s war crimes unit yesterday.

Speaking outside New Scotland Yard, they said their 240-page dossier is “just the tip of the iceberg,” with reports of more than 100 Britons having served with Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) since October 2023.

Nearly 100 legal and human rights experts have signed a letter urging the War Crimes Team to investigate the dossier by the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) and the Public Interest Law Centre (PILC).

PILC legal director and founder Paul Heron said that the report is based on six months of extensive evidence-gathering using open-source evidence and witness testimony.

It shows 10 Britons “committed war crimes and crimes against humanity while serving for the Israeli military on active service in Gaza,” he said.

The names of the suspects include officer-level individuals, but they cannot be named for legal reasons.

The allegations against them include murder and “deliberately causing great suffering, serious injury and cruel treatment” to Palestinians,” Mr Heron said.

They also include attacks on civilians, forcible transfer and deportation, and attacks on humanitarian personel as well as “extermination, as it relates to the actions of the Israeli military against the Palestinian people.”

The report also accuses suspects of co-ordinated attacks on protected sites including historic monuments and religious sites.

Mr Heron said: “This submission could not be more timely. Over the past 14 days Gaza has continued to be indiscriminately attacked.”

With reports that at least 1,060 Palestinians have been killed over the period, he added: “These incidents are of course just the tip of the iceberg; our submission to the Metropolitan Police therefore calls for the urgent commencemet of a investigation into those British nationals with a view to arrest warrants and prosecutions in British courts.

“Investigating British nationals is necessary, it is feasible and it is proportionate.

“Evidence we have provided in our submission today clearly links them to crimes, crime sites, Israeli military units and specific actions, there must be legal immediate accountability.”

PCHR director Raji Sourania said: “Through this submission to the War Crimes Unit, we make sure that the UK do know that there are criminals participating in war crimes and crimes against humanity and other such crimes and they have to move.”

Human rights barrister Michael Mansfield KC, known for his work on landmark cases such as the Grenfell Tower fire, Stephen Lawrence and the Birmingham Six, said: “We are standing on the brink of the collapse of the rule of order because certain states have taken it upon themselves — and Israel isn't the only one — to act with impunity.

“The one measure that is being taken today is a practical one to indicate that as citizens of a country we can do something about it.”

Independent Birmingham MP Ayoub Khan told the Morning Star that anyone who is convicted of war crimes should be stripped of their citizenship.

“If you have individuals that were quite content in snipering children — I’m confident that British society would want these invidivuals behind bars and stripped of their nationality,” he said.

“That should be something that happens to someone who is prosecuted for war crimes.”

A witness, whose testimony is detailed in the report, said: “I could not bear what I saw: dead bodies scattered next to each other.

“I could not recognise them as they were covered with a blanket… I took off the cover and saw the bodies of my uncle and his son, my nephews, and my brother-in-law along with other displaced people’s bodies.”

Jake Taylor, a barrister involved in the report, said that further reports of war crimes by British nationals in Gaza have come to light since its investigatory work was made public.

A counter terrorism policing spokesperson said: “We can confirm that we received a referral from a group of lawyers on Monday April 7.

“As is the case with all such referrals, this will now be assessed by specialist officers to determine whether any UK-based investigation may be required.”