More than 800 lawyers, academics and retired senior judges have called on UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer to sanction the Israeli government and take steps at the UN Security Council to expel Israel as a UN member state.
In an open letter sent to UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer this week, the signatories, who include former Supreme Court justices Lord Sumption and Lord Wilson, say there is mounting evidence that genocide is being perpetrated or is at serious risk of occurring in Gaza.
"Your government must act now, before it is too late," the letter says, referring to the ongoing abuses by Israel in the besieged territory.
The legal experts, who also include former Court of Appeal judges Sir Stephen Sedley, Sir Anthony Hooper and Sir Alan Moses, urge Starmer to sanction Israeli ministers or senior military officials who they say have incited genocide or supported illegal settlements.
They call on the British government to adhere to its fundamental international legal obligations and "use all available means to secure an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire in Gaza and to ensure the urgent, unconditional and unimpeded resumption of aid" to Palestinians.
To achieve this, it called on the government to impose sanctions on Israeli government ministers and other civil and military figures "reasonably suspected of involvement in unlawful conduct," and to review existing trade ties with Israel, impose trade sanctions, and suspend a roadmap for a closer UK-Israel partnership.
They also accuse Israel of "an unparalleled assault on the United Nations" through its banning of Unrwa, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, and its "attacks on UN premises, property and personnel."
They write that the UK should consider using its role in the UN Security Council to initiate proceedings under Article 6 of the UN Charter in response to Israel’s persistent violations of the Charter.
Under Article 6 of the UN Charter, the General Assembly has the authority to expel a UN member state upon a recommendation from the Security Council, if the state has "persistently violated" the principles enshrined in the charter.
No state has ever been expelled from the UN. Such a decision must be subject to a vote by the Security Council, which in the case of Israel will likely be vetoed by the United States and other allies.
Last week, the UK announced that it was summoning the Israeli ambassador in London and suspending its free trade agreement talks with Israel in response to its expanded military operations in Gaza.
The government further introduced fresh sanctions on settler leaders and organisations. But this week the UK's trade envoy to Israel, Ian Austin, arrived in Israel to "promote trade".
On Monday Austin was in Haifa, where he visited the customs scanning centre, Haifa Bayport and the Haifa-Nazareth Light Rail project.
Since the war erupted on Gaza erupted, Israeli forces have killed at least 54,000 Palestinians, including more than 28,000 women and girls, according to Palestinian health and government officials.
The figure includes at least 1,400 health sector professionals, 280 UN aid workers - the highest staff death toll in UN history - and at least 180 journalists, the highest number of media workers killed in conflict since the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) began recording data in 1992.
In January, the medical journal the Lancet reported that fatalities were probably underreported by 41 percent.
The study estimated that 59.1 percent of those killed were women, children and people over the age of 65. It did not provide an estimate of Palestinian fighters among the dead.
That toll represented 2.9 percent of Gaza's pre-war population, "or approximately one in 35 inhabitants", the study said.
