MANCHESTER AMNESTY CALLS FOR ACCOUNTABILITY FOR WAR CRIMES BY ISRAEL AND HAMAS

Call to respect and apply international law

Amnesty International, Manchester Group, calls on our political leaders to ensure accountability for the war crimes committed by Israel and by Hamas. We demand that the international laws established to protect all peoples be respected and applied to bring perpetrators to justice.

GENOCIDE

In January 2024, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) found plausible risk that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. The UK government has disregarded its legal obligation to prevent genocide; this has contributed to Israel’s impunity and risked British complicity in serious crimes against international law. 

Amnesty International undertook extensive research and concluded that Israel has committed genocide against Palestinians in the occupied Gaza Strip. This is a matter of law and evidence, rather than opinion. Amnesty examined Israel’s acts in Gaza closely and in their totality and published the evidence in a comprehensive report in December 2024*. Amnesty found that Israel unleashed destruction on Palestinians in Gaza brazenly, continuously and with total impunity. The number of Palestinian civilians killed, the scale of physical destruction, the blocking of life-saving aid before the ceasefire, and the stream of dehumanising and racist anti-Palestinian rhetoric from Israeli officials, provide clear evidence of genocidal intent, as defined by law, in Israel’s actions in Gaza.  Amnesty also noted that high level Israeli officials in charge of the war efforts frequently made public statements announcing or calling for prohibited acts.

HUMANITARIAN AID

In Gaza now there is an overwhelming need for humanitarian aid. Amnesty International condemns the new Israeli law banning the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). This law amounts to the criminalization of humanitarian aid and will worsen an already catastrophic humanitarian crisis. UNRWA has been a lifeline for Palestinian refugees in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank for 75 years. It has provided food, water, medical aid, education and shelter to the nearly 2 million Palestinians in Gaza who have been forcibly displaced, subjected to an engineered famine, and stand at serious risk of genocide as a result of Israel’s relentless offensive in the last 12 months. This law flies in the face of the International Court of Justice order to Israel to ensure sufficient humanitarian assistance and facilitate basic services.

UK RESPONSIBILITIES

As a state party to the Genocide Convention, the UK has a legal obligation to use all reasonable means to help prevent genocide and be consistent when supporting international law – just as it has done when calling out crimes carried out by Russian forces. 

Prime Minister Keir Starmer must accept the UK’s obligations to help ensure there is justice and accountability. To avoid the risk of being complicit in genocide, the UK should have ended all arms transfers to Israel long ago and committed full support to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and other important international accountability mechanisms. The UK should take those steps urgently now. 

CRIMES BY HAMAS

Manchester Amnesty also condemns the appalling killings and kidnappings by Hamas and other Palestine armed groups on 7 October 2023. They flagrantly violated international law and displayed a chilling disregard for life by carrying out cruel and brutal crimes, including mass summary killings, hostage-taking, and launching indiscriminate rocket attacks into Israel. Massacring civilians is a war crime and there can be no justification for these reprehensible attacks. We demand accountability for these crimes under international law.

__________________________________________

* ‘You Feel Like You Are Subhuman’: Israel’s Genocide Against Palestinians in Gaza