The Gaza Tribunal, an inquiry into Britain's role in Israeli war crimes in Gaza, took place in London on September 4-5. bringing legal experts, UN Special Rapporteurs, and witnesses together to examine Israel's war crimes in Gaza and Britain's role in the genocide. The event was convened by the Peace & Justice Project, and hosted and led by Jeremy Corbyn, who played a central role both as organiser and speaker.

"Just like Iraq, [Britain] will not succeed in its attempts to suffocate the truth. We will uncover the full scale of British complicity in genocide - and we will bring about justice for the people of Palestine," Jeremy Corbyn said ahead of the launch.

Jeremy Corbyn opened the proceedings by framing the tribunal as a moral and legal reckoning. He condemned the British government's military and political support for Israel, arguing that it amounted to complicity in genocide. He called for accountability, urging civil society to hold the British government responsible for its role in enabling the destruction in Gaza. Jeremy Corbyn highlighted the failure of Parliament to investigate UK arms exports and intelligence-sharing with Israel, referencing his own Gaza Inquiry Bill that was rejected by Parliament earlier in the summer.

Speaking at the opening of the event, Shahd Hammouri, lecturer in international law and legal theory at the University of Kent, said that bringing witnesses to the event was a moral duty for them. "Today we pay tribute to democracy, we pay tribute to justice, we pay tribute to common humanity, and historically decisive moment," she said.

Dr Nick Maynard, who works as a consultant gastrointestinal surgeon at Oxford University Hospital and who has recently returned from his third trip to Gaza, gave evidence of how Israel is deliberately targeting hospitals and healthcare workers. "Hospitals are being targeted deliberately, I have seen that daily," he said. He added that more than 450 of them have been abducted, along with many others who were killed or injured in the ongoing Israeli attacks.

Dr Maynard described operating on dozens of teenagers shot by Israeli forces while waiting in line for aid during his latest mission at Nasser Hospital. The injuries, he explained, showed clear patterns: one day victims arrived with wounds to the head and neck, another day with chest injuries, and then with abdominal trauma. His and other testimonies emphasised the calculated nature of the attacks, pointing to a clear intent to exterminate and ethnically cleanse Gaza. Meanwhile, Britain and other European governments have continued to turn a blind eye, focusing instead on criminalising Palestine solidarity movements.

For her part, Hala Sabbah, a Palestinian and the co-founder of Sameer Project, a donations-based aid initiative for Gaza led by Palestinians, said that during the siege, many children have died due to lack of medicine. "Aid is controlled by the military occupation deliberately," she said, adding that the famine has not stopped and children still starve to death. She also condemned Britain for the very low number of Gazan children who were treated here, while, for example, Italy and Spain host hundreds of children in their hospitals. "The UK is not only actively killing us, they refuse us," she said, accusing Britain of being complicit in the genocide, which she emphasised had started long before October 7, 2023.

Another witness, Palestinian journalist Abubaker Abed, shared his account of malnutrition during the time he was still in Gaza before being evacuated to Ireland in February 2025. "What you see in Gaza is an extension of what Israel has been doing in Gaza in past 20 years since the blockade," he said, mentioning that the situation was already bad for Palestinians in Gaza before the beginning of the Israeli attacks in 2023. He also talked about how Israel targeted journalists in the strip, and said that over 250 journalists have been killed deliberately by Israel.

On the second day of the tribunal, more space was given to exposing the depth of British involvement, despite Labour's attempts to avoid the issue. The proceedings aimed to establish a factual and legal basis for holding the British government accountable under international law. It was especially searing, with nearly thirty witnesses delivering testimony that painted a devastating portrait of life in Gaza and Britain's role in enabling it. It focused on testimonies from aid workers and survivors, including accounts of systematic targeting and deprivation; legal analysis of Britain's obligations under international humanitarian law, and a political critique of the current government's complicity, particularly under Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

Since October 2023, numerous reports have documented British complicity in the genocide in Gaza. They range from warnings over ongoing exports of F-35 jet parts used to bomb schools and hospitals, to accounts of intelligence shared with the Israeli occupation that facilitated attacks on civilian infrastructure. These revelations have sparked regular mobilisations, with many hundreds of thousands demanding accountability from the government and an end to the genocide.

The Gaza Tribunal heard evidence from lawyers that Israel's murder last year - in three co-ordinated airstrikes - of British World Central Kitchen (WCK) aid workers in Gaza was almost certainly guided by data from an RAF spy plane flying overhead at the time. And lawyer Forz Khan, who acts as lawyer for one of the bereaved families, told the tribunal how the Starmer government blocked the family's request for the plane's footage and data in a cover-up of Israel's crime and Britain's involvement in it. Israel initially tried to claim the murders were an accident, but the attacks - on three WCK vehicles - were proven to have taken place in three separate locations spread across 1.5 miles. The Foreign Office did not even summon Israel's ambassador to answer for the murders. Khan also recounted how families of Israelis held captive in Gaza were invited to bring legal counsel to their meeting with government ministers - but the bereaved WCK families asked to bring their lawyers were refused permission by the Starmer regime.

The same concerns of the British government's assistance in Israel's murders were raised only last month, when a UK spy plane was proven to have been operating over Gaza during occupation airstrikes that murdered six journalists.

Jeremy Corbyn made a striking reference during the Tribunal to the use of rubble in Gaza, reportedly stating that Israel was repurposing the debris from bombed buildings "regardless of whether bodies were still buried beneath it". This remark was part of his broader condemnation of what he described as a systematic erasure of Palestinian life and dignity.

The Tribunal intends to publish a formal report with findings and recommendations, encouraging civil society groups to launch a public pressure campaign for parliamentary debate. Legal teams are exploring avenues for international accountability and sanctions.

Note
The Gaza Tribunal website can be found at: https://thegazatribunal.uk/
(MEMO, The Corbyn Project, Popular Resistance, Skwawkbox, other news sources)

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